Severity of H1N1 Influenza Linked to Presence of Streptococcus Pneumoniae

Severity of H1N1 Influenza Linked to Presence of Streptococcus Pneumoniae

  7:06:00 PM    Science Lover

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The presence of the Streptococcus pneumoniae in samples that can be easily obtained in clinics and emergency rooms may predict risk of severe disease in H1N1 pandemic influenza.

Streptococcus pneumoniae bacterial colonies. (Credit: CDC/Dr. Richard Facklam)

Reports that H1N1 pandemic influenza in Argentina was associated with higher morbidity and mortality than in other countries led investigators in the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University, their colleagues at Argentina's National Institute of Infectious Diseases (INEI), and Roche 454 Life Sciences to look for viral mutations indicative of increased virulence and for co-infections that could contribute to disease.

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People With Generalized Anxiety Disorder

People With Generalized Anxiety Disorder

  1:17:00 AM    Science Lover

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Scrambled connections between the part of the brain that processes fear and emotion and other brain regions could be the hallmark of a common anxiety disorder, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine. The findings could help researchers identify biological differences between types of anxiety disorders as well as such disorders as depression.

This image shows, in red, brain regions with stronger connections to the amygdala in patients with GAD, while the blue areas indicate weaker connectivity. The red corresponds to areas important for attention and may reflect the habitual use of cognitive strategies like worry and distraction in the anxiety patients. (Credit: Image courtesy of Stanford University Medical Center)

The study, which will be published Dec. 7 in the Archives of General Psychiatry, examined the brains of people with generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD, a psychiatric condition in which patients spend their days in a haze of worry over everyday concerns. Researchers have known that the amygdala, a pair of almond-sized bundles of nerve fibers in the middle of the brain that help process emotion, memory and fear, are involved in anxiety disorders like GAD. But the Stanford study is the first to peer close enough to detect neural pathways going to and from subsections of this tiny brain region.

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Synesthetic Experiences, Such as Seeing a Certain Color Associated With a Number, Are Real and Automatic

Synesthetic Experiences, Such as Seeing a Certain Color Associated With a Number, Are Real and Automatic

  9:57:00 AM    Science Lover

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For as many as 1 in 20 people, everyday experiences can elicit extra-ordinary associated sensations. The condition is known as synaesthesia and the most common form involves "seeing" colours when reading words and numbers. Many previous studies have shown that the brains of people who experience this phenomenon are different from those who do not and, in a new study reported in the February 2010 issue of Cortex, researchers from the University of Padova, Italy, have discovered that learning may also play an important role in synaesthesia and can lead to synaesthetic behaviour even when the person is not consciously aware of the experience.

A synaesthete for whom the number 2 is red will find it more difficult to name the ink colour of a green 2 than if the number is presented in red ink and will take longer to name the color. (Credit: iStockphoto)

Dr Ilaria Berteletti and colleagues tested an Italian synaesthete using a classic test, in which the participant was shown a series of numbers presented in different ink colours and asked to name those colours. A synaesthete for whom the number 2 is red will find it more difficult to name the ink colour of a green 2 than if the number is presented in red ink and will take longer to respond. This slowing of response is generally taken as evidence that synaesthetic experiences are real and automatic.

As predicted, the participant in this study was slower to name the colours of the presented Arabic digits when they did not match the colours that he had reported "seeing." Strikingly, the same slowing was observed when the numbers were presented as dots, such as dice patterns, even though the participant denied seeing any colours for these types of stimuli. The results suggest that the mere concept of a number, regardless of how it was presented visually (as an Arabic digit or pattern of dots), was enough to produce the marker of synaesthetic behaviour, even when the participant was not conscious of experiencing synaesthesia. According to co-author Dr Edward Hubbard, "a lifetime of synaesthetic experiences may lead to the creation of learned associations between different classes of stimuli" and that "conscious awareness of these associations is not necessary for them to affect behaviour."

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First Volume of Microbial Encyclopedia Published

First Volume of Microbial Encyclopedia Published

  11:27:00 PM    Science Lover

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The Earth is estimated to have about a nonillion (1030) microbes in, on, around, and under it, comprised of an unknown but very large number of distinct species. Despite the widespread availability of microbial genome data -- close to 2,000 microbes have been and are being decoded to date -- a vast unknown realm awaits scientists intent on exploring microorganisms that inhabit this "undiscovered country."

From DNA to digital information about the vast unexplored microbial world -- the Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea (GEBA) pilot project led by the DOE Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), is beginning to fill in the underrepresented branches of the tree of life. (Credit: Roy Kaltschmidt, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Two thousand years after Pliny the Elder compiled one of the earliest surviving encyclopedic works, and in the spirit of his goal of providing "light to the obscure," the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) has published the initial "volume" of the Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea (GEBA). Presenting a provocative glimpse into this uncharted territory, an analysis of the first 56 genomes representing two of the three domains of the tree of life appears in the December 24 edition of the journal Nature.

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Broken Genomes Behind Breast Cancers, Research Finds

Broken Genomes Behind Breast Cancers, Research Finds

  11:26:00 PM    Science Lover

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The first detailed search of breast cancer genomes to uncover genomic rearrangements is published December 23. The team characterised the ways in which the human genome is broken and put back together in 24 cases of breast cancer.

Breast cancer cell. (Credit: Lorna McInroy, Wellcome Images)

Rearrangements involve reshuffling and reorganisation of the genome and include deletions, duplications and novel juxtaposition of DNA sequences. The study shows that breast cancer samples can differ greatly in the extent to which they are subject to genomic rearrangements: some are relatively undisturbed whereas others are fractured extensively and then reassembled with more than 200 rearrangements present.

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Scientists Map Speed of Climate Change for Different Ecosystems

Scientists Map Speed of Climate Change for Different Ecosystems

  11:44:00 AM    Science Lover

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From beetles to barnacles, pikas to pine warblers, many species are already on the move in response to shifting climate regimes. But how fast will they -- and their habitats -- have to move to keep pace with global climate change over the next century? In a new study, a team of scientists including Dr. Healy Hamilton from the California Academy of Sciences have calculated that on average, ecosystems will need to shift about 0.42 kilometers per year (about a quarter mile per year) to keep pace with changing temperatures across the globe.

Subdivision in Oregon, U.S. Global warming is causing climate belts to shift toward the poles and to higher elevations. To keep pace with these changes, the average ecosystem will need to shift about a quarter mile each year, says a new study led by scientists at the Carnegie Institution. For some habitats, such as low-lying areas, climate belts are moving even faster, putting many species in jeopardy, especially where human development has blocked migration paths. (Credit: iStockphoto)

Mountainous habitats will be able to move more slowly, since a modest move up or down slope can result in a large change in temperature. However, flatter ecosystems, such as flooded grasslands, mangroves, and deserts, will need to move much more rapidly to stay in their comfort zone -- sometimes more than a kilometer per year. The team, which also included scientists from the Carnegie Institute of Science, Climate Central, and U.C. Berkeley, will publish their results in the December 24 issue of Nature.

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Glitter-Sized Solar Photovoltaics Could Revolutionize the Way Solar Energy Is Collected and Used

Glitter-Sized Solar Photovoltaics Could Revolutionize the Way Solar Energy Is Collected and Used

  1:21:00 AM    Science Lover

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Sandia National Laboratories scientists have developed tiny glitter-sized photovoltaic cells that could revolutionize the way solar energy is collected and used.

Representative thin crystalline-silicon photovoltaic cells -- these are from 14 to 20 micrometers thick and 0.25 to 1 millimeter across. (Credit: Image by Murat Okandan)

The tiny cells could turn a person into a walking solar battery charger if they were fastened to flexible substrates molded around unusual shapes, such as clothing.

The solar particles, fabricated of crystalline silicon, hold the potential for a variety of new applications. They are expected eventually to be less expensive and have greater efficiencies than current photovoltaic collectors that are pieced together with 6-inch- square solar wafers.

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Hubbles Festive View of a Grand Star-Forming Region

Hubbles Festive View of a Grand Star-Forming Region

  6:09:00 PM    Science Lover

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Just in time for the holidays: a Hubble Space Telescope picture postcard of hundreds of brilliant blue stars wreathed by warm, glowing clouds. The festive portrait is the most detailed view of the largest stellar nursery in our local galactic neighborhood.

The massive, young stellar grouping, called R136, is only a few million years old and resides in the 30 Doradus Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. (Credit: NASA, ESA, F. Paresce (INAF-IASF, Bologna, Italy), R. O'Connell (University of Virginia, Charlottesville), and the Wide Field Camera 3 Science Oversight Committee)

The massive, young stellar grouping, called R136, is only a few million years old and resides in the 30 Doradus Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. There is no known star-forming region in our galaxy as large or as prolific as 30 Doradus.

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Why Does a Human Baby Need a Full Year Before Starting to Walk?

Why Does a Human Baby Need a Full Year Before Starting to Walk?

  1:09:00 AM    Science Lover

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Why does a human baby need a full year before it can start walking, while a newborn foal gets up on its legs almost directly after birth? Scientist have assumed that human motor development is unique because our brain is unusually complex and because it is particularly challenging to walk on two legs. But now a research group at Lund University in Sweden has shown that human babies in fact start walking at the same stage in brain development as most other walking mammals, from small rodents to elephants.

Why does a human baby need a full year before it can start walking, while a newborn foal gets up on its legs almost directly after birth? (Credit: iStockphoto/Beth Jeppson)

The findings are published in the journal PNAS.

The Lund group consists of neurophysiologists Martin Garwicz and Maria Christensson and developmental psychologist Elia Psouni. Contrary to convention, they used conception and not birth as the starting point of motor development in their comparison between different mammals. This revealed astonishing similarities among species that diverged in evolution as much as 100 million years ago. -- Humans certainly have more brain cells and bigger brains than most other terrestrial mammalian species, but with respect to walking, brain development appears to be similar for us and other mammals. Our study demonstrates that the difference is quantitative, not qualitative, says Martin Garwicz.

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First Evidence Of Virus In Malignant Prostate Cells: XMRV Retrovirus Linked To More Aggressive Tumors

First Evidence Of Virus In Malignant Prostate Cells: XMRV Retrovirus Linked To More Aggressive Tumors

  9:53:00 PM    Science Lover

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In a finding with potentially major implications for identifying a viral cause of prostate cancer, researchers at the University of Utah and Columbia University medical schools have reported that a type of virus known to cause leukemia and sarcomas in animals has been found for the first time in malignant human prostate cancer cells.

Histopathology of adenocarcinoma of the prostate. (Credit: CDC/Dr. Edwin P. Ewing, Jr.)

If further investigation proves the virus, XMRV (Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus), causes prostate cancer in people, it would open opportunities for developing diagnostic tests, vaccines, and therapies for treating the cancer, according to the study published Sept. 7 online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Prostate cancer is expected to strike nearly 200,000 U.S. males this year, making it the second most common form of cancer, outside of skin cancers, among men.


"We found that XMRV was present in 27 percent of prostate cancers we examined and that it was associated with more aggressive tumors," said Ila R. Singh, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of pathology at University of Utah and the study's senior author. "We still don't know that this virus causes cancer in people, but that is an important question we're going to investigate."


Singh, also a member of the U of U's Huntsman Cancer Institute and associate medical director at ARUP Laboratories, moved to Utah from Columbia University Medical Center in 2008, where she began this research. She remains an adjunct faculty member at Columbia.


Along with providing the first proof that XMRV is present in malignant cells, the study also confirmed that XMRV is a gammaretrovirus, a simple retrovirus first isolated from prostate cancers in 2006 by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and the Cleveland Clinic. Gammaretroviruses are known to cause cancer in animals, but have not been shown to do so in humans. The UCSF study did not examine benign (non-malignant) prostate tissues, so could not link XMRV to prostate cancer. They also did not find the virus in malignant cells.


Singh and her fellow researchers examined more than 200 human prostate cancers, and compared them to more than 100 non-cancerous prostate tissues. They found 27 percent of the cancers contained XMRV, compared to only 6 percent of the benign tissues. The viral proteins were found almost exclusively in malignant prostatic cells, suggesting that XMRV infection may be directly linked to the formation of tumors.


Retroviruses insert a DNA copy of their genome into the chromosomes of the cells they infect. Such an insertion sometimes occurs adjacent to a gene that regulates cell growth, disrupting normal cell growth, resulting in more rapid proliferation of such a cell, which eventually develops into a cancer. This mechanism of carcinogenesis is followed by gammaretroviruses in general. Singh is currently examining if a similar mechanism might be involved with XMRV and prostate cancer.


In another important finding of the study, Singh and her colleagues also showed that susceptibility to XMRV infection is not enhanced by a genetic mutation, as was previously reported. If XMRV were caused by the mutation, only the 10 percent of the population who carry the mutated gene would be at risk for infection with virus. But Singh found no connection between XMRV and the mutation, meaning the risk for infection may extend to the population at large.


While the study answers important questions about XMRV, it also raises a number of other questions, such as whether the virus infects women, is sexually transmitted, how prevalent it is in the general population, and whether it causes cancers in tissues other than the prostate.


"We have many questions right now," Singh said, "and we believe this merits further investigation."


Viruses have been shown to cause cancer of the cervix, connective tissues (sarcomas), immune system (lymphoma), and other organs. If the retrovirus is shown to cause prostate cancer, this could have important implications for preventing viral transmission and for developing vaccines to prevent XMRV infection in people.


If you like this post, buy me a Pittza at $1!

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Synthetic Red Blood Cells Developed: Red-Blood-Cell-Like Particles Carry Oxygen, Drugs, and More

Synthetic Red Blood Cells Developed: Red-Blood-Cell-Like Particles Carry Oxygen, Drugs, and More

  12:54:00 AM    Science Lover

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Scientists at UC Santa Barbara, in collaboration with scientists at University of Michigan, have developed synthetic particles that closely mimic the characteristics and key functions of natural red blood cells, including softness, flexibility, and the ability to carry oxygen.

Biocompatible synthetic red blood cells (sRBCs) synthesized by the UCSB team, 

where the shell is composed of alternate layers of hemoglobin and BSA. 

(Scale bar, 5 microns). (Credit: Image courtesy of)

The primary function of natural red blood cells is to carry oxygen, and the synthetic red blood cells (sRBCs) do that very well, retaining 90% of their oxygen-binding capacity after a week. The sRBCs also, however, have been shown to deliver therapeutic drugs effectively and with controlled release, and to carry well-distributed contrast agents for enhanced resolution in diagnostic imaging.

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Food Emits Anti-Hunger Aromas During Chewing

Food Emits Anti-Hunger Aromas During Chewing

  10:13:00 AM    Science Lover

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A real possibility does exist for developing a new generation of foods that make people feel full by releasing anti-hunger aromas during chewing, scientists in the Netherlands are reporting after a review of research on that topic. Such foods would fight the global epidemic of obesity with aromas that quench hunger and prevent people from overeating. Their article appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

A real possibility does exist for developing a new generation of foods that make people feel full by releasing anti-hunger aromas during chewing. (Credit: iStockphoto/Jan Couver)

Rianne Ruijschop and colleagues note that scientists long have tried to develop tasty foods that trigger or boost the feeling of fullness. Until recently, that research focused on food's effects in stomach after people swallow it. Efforts now have expanded to include foods that release hunger-quenching aromas during chewing. Molecules that make up a food's aroma apparently do so by activating areas of the brain that signal fullness.

Their analysis found that aroma release during chewing does contribute to the feeling of fullness and possibly to consumers' decisions to stop eating. The report cites several possible applications, including developing foods that release more aroma during chewing or developing aromas that have a more powerful effect in triggering feelings of fullness.

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Heart Cells on Lab Chip Display 'Nanosense' That Guides Behavior

Heart Cells on Lab Chip Display 'Nanosense' That Guides Behavior

  11:30:00 PM    Science Lover

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Johns Hopkins biomedical engineers, working with colleagues in Korea, have produced a laboratory chip with nanoscopic grooves and ridges capable of growing cardiac tissue that more closely resembles natural heart muscle. Surprisingly, heart cells cultured in this way used a "nanosense" to collect instructions for growth and function solely from the physical patterns on the nanotextured chip and did not require any special chemical cues to steer the tissue development in distinct ways.

Johns Hopkins researchers developed this chip to culture heart cells that more closely resemble natural cardiac tissue. (Credit: Will Kirk/homewoodphoto.jhu.edu)

The scientists say this tool could be used to design new therapies or diagnostic tests for cardiac disease.

The device and experiments using it were described online in the Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The work, a collaboration with Seoul National University, represents an important advance for researchers who grow cells in the lab to learn more about cardiac disorders and possible remedies.

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Scientists Decode Memory-Forming Brain Cell Conversations

Scientists Decode Memory-Forming Brain Cell Conversations

  12:37:00 AM    Science Lover

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The conversations neurons have as they form and recall memories have been decoded by Medical College of Georgia scientists.

Artist's rendering of neurons. (Credit: iStockphoto)

The breakthrough in recognizing in real time the formation and recollection of a memory opens the door to objective, thorough memory studies and eventually better therapies, said Dr. Joe Tsien, neuroscientist and co-director of MCG's Brain & Behavior Discovery Institute. He is corresponding author on the study published Dec. 16 in PLoS ONE.

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Looking for Life in the Multiverse: Scientific American

Looking for Life in the Multiverse: Scientific American

  12:31:00 AM    Science Lover

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Key Concepts

• Multiple other universes—each with its own laws of physics—may have emerged from the same primordial vacuum that gave rise to ours.
• Assuming they exist, many of those universes may contain intricate structures and perhaps even some forms of life.
• These findings suggest that our universe may not be as “finely tuned” for the emergence of life as previously thought.

Looking for Life in the Multiverse: Scientific American

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A new microscopic system devised

A new microscopic system devised

  12:08:00 AM    Science Lover

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A new microscopic system devised by researchers in MIT's department of materials science and engineering could provide a novel method for moving tiny objects inside a microchip, and could also provide new insights into how cells and other objects are propelled around within the body.

Chains of superparamagnetic colloidal particles rotate to produce flows on length scales much larger than the chain dimensions, allowing them to behave like "micro-ants" that can move large particles. (Credit: Charles Sing)

Inside organs such as the trachea and the intestines, tiny hair-like filaments called cilia are constantly in motion, beating in unison to create currents that sweep along cells, nutrients, or other tiny particles. The new research uses a self-assembling system to mimic that kind of motion, providing a simple way to move particles around in a precisely controlled way.

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Bacteria Shed Light on Human Decision-Making?

Bacteria Shed Light on Human Decision-Making?

  10:00:00 PM    Science Lover

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Scientists studying how bacteria under stress collectively weigh and initiate different survival strategies say they have gained new insights into how humans make strategic decisions that affect their health, wealth and the fate of others in society.

Colonies of billions of Bacillus subtilis bacteria exhibit the complex structures that sometimes form under environmental stress. (Credit: Eshel Ben Jacob)

Their study, recently published in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was accomplished when the scientists applied the mathematical techniques used in physics to describe the complex interplay of genes and proteins that colonies of bacteria rely upon to initiate different survival strategies during times of environmental stress. Using the mathematical tools of theoretical physics and chemistry to describe complex biological systems is becoming more commonplace in the emerging field of theoretical biological physics.

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Nerve-Cell Transplants Help Brain-Damaged Rats Fully Recover Lost Ability to Learn

Nerve-Cell Transplants Help Brain-Damaged Rats Fully Recover Lost Ability to Learn

  10:34:00 AM    Science Lover

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Nerve cells transplanted into brain-damaged rats helped them to fully recover their ability to learn and remember, probably by promoting nurturing, protective growth factors, according to a new study.

Location of hippocampus in the human brain. Researchers transplanted nerve cells into brain-damaged rats in a study focusing on the hippocampus, which is considered to be the seat of learning and memory. (Credit: Gray's Anatomy / Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Building on previous investigation of transplants in the nervous system, this critical study confirms that cell transplants can help the brain to heal itself. Ultimately, it may lead to new therapies to help dementia patients. More generally, scientists can now develop and test new ways to help repair an injured nervous system -- whether through new drugs, genetically modified cells, transplanted neural (nerve) and non-neural brain cells, or other means.

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Earth's Atmosphere Came from Outer Space, Scientists Find

Earth's Atmosphere Came from Outer Space, Scientists Find

  10:22:00 AM    Science Lover

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The gases which formed the Earth's atmosphere -- and probably its oceans -- did not come from inside the Earth but from outer space, according to a study by University of Manchester and University of Houston scientists.

New research suggests that the gases which formed Earth's atmosphere -- and probably its oceans -- did not come from inside Earth but from outer space. (Credit: iStockphoto)

The report published in the journal Science means that textbook images of ancient Earth with huge volcanoes spewing gas into the atmosphere will have to be rethought.

According to the team, the age-old view that volcanoes were the source of the Earth's earliest atmosphere must be put to rest.

Using world-leading analytical techniques, the team of Dr Greg Holland, Dr Martin Cassidy and Professor Chris Ballentine tested volcanic gases to uncover the new evidence.

The research was funded by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

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Bacteria Engineered to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Liquid Fuel

Bacteria Engineered to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Liquid Fuel

  10:18:00 AM    Science Lover

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Global climate change has prompted efforts to drastically reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas produced by burning fossil fuels.

Genetically engineered strains of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus in a Petri dish. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - Los Angeles)

In a new approach, researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have genetically modified a cyanobacterium to consume carbon dioxide and produce the liquid fuel isobutanol, which holds great potential as a gasoline alternative. The reaction is powered directly by energy from sunlight, through photosynthesis.

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Paper, Nanotube Ink, Wires: Instant Battery

Paper, Nanotube Ink, Wires: Instant Battery

  10:15:00 AM    Science Lover

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Stanford scientists are harnessing nanotechnology to quickly produce ultra-lightweight, bendable batteries and supercapacitors in the form of everyday paper.

Bing Hu, a post-doctoral fellow, prepares a small square of ordinary paper to with an ink that will deposit nanotubes on the surface that can then be charged with energy to create a battery. (Credit: L.A. Cicero)

Simply coating a sheet of paper with ink made of carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires makes a highly conductive storage device, said Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering.

"Society really needs a low-cost, high-performance energy storage device, such as batteries and simple supercapacitors," he said.

Like batteries, capacitors hold an electric charge, but for a shorter period of time. However, capacitors can store and discharge electricity much more rapidly than a battery.

Cui's work is reported in the paper "Highly Conductive Paper for Energy Storage Devices," published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Earth More Sensitive to Carbon Dioxide Than Previously Thought

Earth More Sensitive to Carbon Dioxide Than Previously Thought

  4:46:00 PM    Science Lover

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In the long term, the Earth's temperature may be 30-50% more sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide than has previously been estimated, reports a new study published in Nature Geoscience.

The temperature response of the Earth (in degrees C) to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from pre-industrial levels (280 parts per million by volume) to higher levels (400 parts per million by volume). (a) shows predicted global temperatures when processes that adjust on relatively short-term timescales (for example sea-ice, clouds, and water vapour) are included in the model (b) includes additional long-tem processes that adjust on relatively long timescales (vegetation and land-ice). (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Bristol)

The results show that components of the Earth's climate system that vary over long timescales -- such as land-ice and vegetation -- have an important effect on this temperature sensitivity, but these factors are often neglected in current climate models.

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New Nano-Material May Revolutionize Solar Panels and Batteries

New Nano-Material May Revolutionize Solar Panels and Batteries

  11:03:00 PM    Science Lover

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A coating on windows or solar panels that repels grime and dirt? Expanded battery storage capacities for the next electric car? New Tel Aviv University research, just published in Nature Nanotechnology, details a breakthrough in assembling peptides at the nano-scale level that could make these futuristic visions come true in just a few years.

TAU's nanosized "forest of peptides" can be used as the basis for self-cleaning windows and more efficient batteries. (Credit: Image courtesy of American Friends of Tel Aviv University)

Operating in the range of 100 nanometers (roughly one-billionth of a meter) and even smaller, graduate student Lihi Adler-Abramovich and a team working under Prof. Ehud Gazit in TAU's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology have found a novel way to control the atoms and molecules of peptides so that they "grow" to resemble small forests of grass. These "peptide forests" repel dust and water -- a perfect self-cleaning coating for windows or solar panels which, when dirty, become far less efficient.

"This is beautiful and protean research," says Adler-Abramovich, a Ph.D. candidate. "It began as an attempt to find a new cure for Alzheimer's disease. To our surprise, it also had implications for electric cars, solar energy and construction."

As cheap as the sweetener in your soda

A world leader in nanotechnology research, Prof. Gazit has been developing arrays of self-assembling peptides made from proteins for the past six years. His lab, in collaboration with a group led by Prof. Gil Rosenman of TAU's Faculty of Engineering, has been working on new applications for this basic science for the last two years.

Using a variety of peptides, which are as simple and inexpensive to produce as the artificial sweetener aspartame, the researchers create their "self-assembled nano-tubules" in a vacuum under high temperatures. These nano-tubules can withstand extreme heat and are resistant to water.

"We are not manufacturing the actual material but developing a basic-science technology that could lead to self-cleaning windows and more efficient energy storage devices in just a few years," says Adler-Abramovich. "As scientists, we focus on pure research. Thanks to Prof. Gazit's work on beta amyloid proteins, we were able to develop a technique that enables short peptides to 'self-assemble,' forming an entirely new kind of coating which is also a super-capacitor."

As a capacitor with unusually high energy density, the nano-tech material could give existing electric batteries a boost -- necessary to start an electric car, go up a hill, or pass other cars and trucks on the highway. One of the limitations of the electric car is thrust, and the team thinks their research could lead to a solution to this difficult problem.

"Our technology may lead to a storage material with a high density," says Adler-Abramovich. "This is important when you need to generate a lot of energy in a short period of time. It could also be incorporated into today's lithium batteries," she adds.

Window Cleaner a thing of the past?

Coated with the new material, the sealed outer windows of skyscrapers may never need to be washed again -- the TAU lab's material can repel rainwater, as well as the dust and dirt it carries. The efficiency of solar energy panels could be improved as well, as a rain shower would pull away any dust that might have accumulated on the panels. It means saving money on maintenance and cleaning, which is especially a problem in dusty deserts, where most solar farms are installed today.

The lab has already been approached to develop its coating technology commercially. And Prof. Gazit has a contract with drug mega-developer Merck to continue his work on short peptides for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease -- as he had originally foreseen.

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Synthetic Magnetic Fields Trick Neutral Atoms Into Acting as If Electrically Charged

Synthetic Magnetic Fields Trick Neutral Atoms Into Acting as If Electrically Charged

  12:27:00 AM    Science Lover

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Achieving an important new capability in ultracold atomic gases, researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute, a collaboration of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland, have created "synthetic" magnetic fields for ultracold gas atoms, in effect "tricking" neutral atoms into acting as if they are electrically charged particles subjected to a real magnetic field.

A pair of laser beams (red arrows) impinges upon an ultracold gas 

cloud of rubidum atoms (green oval) to create synthetic magnetic fields 

(labeled Beff).(Inset) The beams, combined with an external magnetic 

field (not shown) cause the atoms to "feel" a rotational force; the 

swirling atoms create vortices in the gas. (Credit: JQI)

The demonstration, described in the latest issue of the journal Nature, not only paves the way for exploring the complex natural phenomena involving charged particles in magnetic fields, but may also contribute to an exotic new form of quantum computing.

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First Transgenic Prairie Voles May Help Unlock Secrets of Pair Bonding

First Transgenic Prairie Voles May Help Unlock Secrets of Pair Bonding

  1:00:00 AM    Science Lover

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Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have successfully generated the first transgenic prairie voles, an important step toward unlocking the genetic secrets of pair bonding. The future application of this technology will enable scientists to perform a host of genetic manipulations that will help identify the brain mechanisms of social bonding and other complex social behaviors.

Researchers have successfully generated the first transgenic prairie voles. (Credit: Zoe Donaldson, Yerkes National Primate Research Center)

This advancement may also have important implications for understanding and treating psychiatric disorders associated with impairments in social behavior.

The study is available in the December issue of Biology of Reproduction.

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