Corina Marinescu
46,679 followers -
I am a collection of water, calcium and organic molecules, but not a single one of the cells that compose me knows who I am, or cares ...so why should you?
I am a collection of water, calcium and organic molecules, but not a single one of the cells that compose me knows who I am, or cares ...so why should you?
46,679 followers
Corina's interests
Corina's posts
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"Paramedic" ants save the wounded in termite wars
Like people, ants are often at war. The matabele ant, a small black species native to sub-Saharan Africa, often clashes with its favorite food—termites.
Each time hungry ants crack open a termite mound and dive down into its shadowy depths, they risk dying in battle with their potential prey.
But a new study reveals the ants have a never-before-seen strategy that helps the colony weather wartime casualties. Unlike all other ants, Megaponera analis soldiers carry their injured comrades home.
While this may seem like a small courtesy to the individuals being rescued, these tiny heroics add up, says study leader Erik T. Frank, a myrmecologist at the University Würzburg in Germany.
"There is a clear benefit for the colony,” says Frank, whose study was published April 12 in the journal Science Advances. "These injured ants are able to participate again in future raids and remain a functioning member of the colony."
What’s more, Frank and colleagues estimate these ant colonies are 30 percent larger than they would be if the ants left their comrades for dead.
Paper:
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/4/e1602187
Story via NatGeo:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/ants-rescues-soldiers-injured-africa
Video part of the original paper.
#biodiversity #ants #research #coolcritters
Like people, ants are often at war. The matabele ant, a small black species native to sub-Saharan Africa, often clashes with its favorite food—termites.
Each time hungry ants crack open a termite mound and dive down into its shadowy depths, they risk dying in battle with their potential prey.
But a new study reveals the ants have a never-before-seen strategy that helps the colony weather wartime casualties. Unlike all other ants, Megaponera analis soldiers carry their injured comrades home.
While this may seem like a small courtesy to the individuals being rescued, these tiny heroics add up, says study leader Erik T. Frank, a myrmecologist at the University Würzburg in Germany.
"There is a clear benefit for the colony,” says Frank, whose study was published April 12 in the journal Science Advances. "These injured ants are able to participate again in future raids and remain a functioning member of the colony."
What’s more, Frank and colleagues estimate these ant colonies are 30 percent larger than they would be if the ants left their comrades for dead.
Paper:
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/4/e1602187
Story via NatGeo:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/ants-rescues-soldiers-injured-africa
Video part of the original paper.
#biodiversity #ants #research #coolcritters
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Neurons Anticipate Body’s Response to Food and Water
Using leading-edge technology, neuroscientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) gained new insight into the brain circuitry that regulates water and food intake. In a new study, the team of researchers monitored the activity of the neurons that secrete a hormone in response to ingesting food and water.
In their paper, published online in Neuron, the researchers demonstrated that a subset of neurons starts to prepare the body for an influx of water in the seconds before drinking begins. These neurons help regulate intake by anticipating the effects of drinking from the “top down,” rather than taking cues from the body.
“This study supports the view that when we suddenly detect the availability of food or water, our body starts to prepare itself within seconds for the upcoming bout of eating or drinking,” said co-corresponding author, Mark Andermann, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at BIDMC. “We predict that deficits in this ‘top-down’ control could lead to overshoots in eating or drinking, with many negative consequences.”
Paper:
http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(16)30859-5
Source & further reading:
http://www.bidmc.org/News/PRLandingPage/2016/December/Andermann-Neural-Activity-FoodWater.aspx
#neuroscience #foodintake #vasopressin
Using leading-edge technology, neuroscientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) gained new insight into the brain circuitry that regulates water and food intake. In a new study, the team of researchers monitored the activity of the neurons that secrete a hormone in response to ingesting food and water.
In their paper, published online in Neuron, the researchers demonstrated that a subset of neurons starts to prepare the body for an influx of water in the seconds before drinking begins. These neurons help regulate intake by anticipating the effects of drinking from the “top down,” rather than taking cues from the body.
“This study supports the view that when we suddenly detect the availability of food or water, our body starts to prepare itself within seconds for the upcoming bout of eating or drinking,” said co-corresponding author, Mark Andermann, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at BIDMC. “We predict that deficits in this ‘top-down’ control could lead to overshoots in eating or drinking, with many negative consequences.”
Paper:
http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(16)30859-5
Source & further reading:
http://www.bidmc.org/News/PRLandingPage/2016/December/Andermann-Neural-Activity-FoodWater.aspx
#neuroscience #foodintake #vasopressin
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Two Million Stars on the Move
If you could watch the night sky for one million years -- how would it change? Besides local effects caused by the Earth's spin and the reorientation of the Earth's spin axis, the stars themselves will move. Combining positional data of unprecedented accuracy for two-million stars taken over years by ESA's Earth-orbiting Hipparcos (now defunct) and Gaia satellites, a future extrapolation of star movements was made over millions years.
Many stars make only small angular adjustments, but some stars -- typically those nearby -- will zip across the sky. Once familiar constellations and asterisms will become unrecognizable as the bright stars that formed them move around. Not shown are many local nebulas that will surely dissipate while new ones will likely form in different places. Perhaps reassuringly, future Earth inhabitants will still be able to recognize the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy.
Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Video Credit: ESA, Gaia, DPAC
#space #Gaia #ESA #NASA #stars
If you could watch the night sky for one million years -- how would it change? Besides local effects caused by the Earth's spin and the reorientation of the Earth's spin axis, the stars themselves will move. Combining positional data of unprecedented accuracy for two-million stars taken over years by ESA's Earth-orbiting Hipparcos (now defunct) and Gaia satellites, a future extrapolation of star movements was made over millions years.
Many stars make only small angular adjustments, but some stars -- typically those nearby -- will zip across the sky. Once familiar constellations and asterisms will become unrecognizable as the bright stars that formed them move around. Not shown are many local nebulas that will surely dissipate while new ones will likely form in different places. Perhaps reassuringly, future Earth inhabitants will still be able to recognize the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy.
Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Video Credit: ESA, Gaia, DPAC
#space #Gaia #ESA #NASA #stars
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Heads Up! Total solar eclipse August 21, 2017
On Monday, August 21, 2017, all of North America will be treated to an eclipse of the sun. Anyone within the path of totality can see one of nature’s most awe inspiring sights - a total solar eclipse. This path, where the moon will completely cover the sun and the sun's tenuous atmosphere - the corona - can be seen, will stretch from Salem, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. Observers outside this path will still see a partial solar eclipse where the moon covers part of the sun's disk.
Watch video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve9C0305Hu8
Get informed:
https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/
#eclipse2017 #universe #sun #NASA
On Monday, August 21, 2017, all of North America will be treated to an eclipse of the sun. Anyone within the path of totality can see one of nature’s most awe inspiring sights - a total solar eclipse. This path, where the moon will completely cover the sun and the sun's tenuous atmosphere - the corona - can be seen, will stretch from Salem, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. Observers outside this path will still see a partial solar eclipse where the moon covers part of the sun's disk.
Watch video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve9C0305Hu8
Get informed:
https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/
#eclipse2017 #universe #sun #NASA
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Life-Enabling Plumes above Enceladus
Does Enceladus have underground oceans that could support life? The discovery of jets spewing water vapor and ice was detected by the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft in 2005. The origin of the water feeding the jets, however, was originally unknown. Since discovery, evidence has been accumulating that Enceladus has a deep underground sea, warmed by tidal flexing.
Pictured here, the textured surface of Enceladus is visible in the foreground, while rows of plumes rise from ice fractures in the distance. These jets are made more visible by the Sun angle and the encroaching shadow of night. A recent fly-through has found evidence that a plume -- and so surely the underlying sea -- is rich in molecular hydrogen, a viable food source for microbes that could potentially be living there.
Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA
#space #universe #ESA #NASA #Enceladus #JPL
Does Enceladus have underground oceans that could support life? The discovery of jets spewing water vapor and ice was detected by the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft in 2005. The origin of the water feeding the jets, however, was originally unknown. Since discovery, evidence has been accumulating that Enceladus has a deep underground sea, warmed by tidal flexing.
Pictured here, the textured surface of Enceladus is visible in the foreground, while rows of plumes rise from ice fractures in the distance. These jets are made more visible by the Sun angle and the encroaching shadow of night. A recent fly-through has found evidence that a plume -- and so surely the underlying sea -- is rich in molecular hydrogen, a viable food source for microbes that could potentially be living there.
Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA
#space #universe #ESA #NASA #Enceladus #JPL
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Passive cooling doesn’t cost the planet
Motivated by the challenge of cooling power plants in hot weather, Ronggui Yang, Xiaobo Yin, and their colleagues have created a material capable of round-the-clock cooling to below the ambient temperature. The material, a 50-µm-thick glass–polymer film backed with a 200-nm-thick silver coating, can be cost-effectively manufactured by standard industrial roll-to-roll methods. And the material is completely passive: It can cool itself and its surroundings with no power input. The trick is emitting radiation at wavelengths at which the atmosphere is transparent, allowing heat to escape to (the very cold) outer space.
Source & further reading:
http://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.3513
Image:
A glass–polymer cooling panel, depicted here on the roof of a house, must emit more energy into space than it absorbs from other sources: from the Sun, from atmospheric thermal radiation, and from the environment via conductive and convective heat exchange. To keep the sunlight from warming the underlying roof, a film of silver reflects it away.
#physics #research #science #coolingpower
Motivated by the challenge of cooling power plants in hot weather, Ronggui Yang, Xiaobo Yin, and their colleagues have created a material capable of round-the-clock cooling to below the ambient temperature. The material, a 50-µm-thick glass–polymer film backed with a 200-nm-thick silver coating, can be cost-effectively manufactured by standard industrial roll-to-roll methods. And the material is completely passive: It can cool itself and its surroundings with no power input. The trick is emitting radiation at wavelengths at which the atmosphere is transparent, allowing heat to escape to (the very cold) outer space.
Source & further reading:
http://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.3513
Image:
A glass–polymer cooling panel, depicted here on the roof of a house, must emit more energy into space than it absorbs from other sources: from the Sun, from atmospheric thermal radiation, and from the environment via conductive and convective heat exchange. To keep the sunlight from warming the underlying roof, a film of silver reflects it away.
#physics #research #science #coolingpower
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Early signs of Alzheimer’s detected in cerebrospinal fluid
Little is known about the role of the brain‘s immune system in Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at the Munich site of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and the hospital of the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) Munich have found an early immune response in individuals with a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer‘s: their brain’s showed abnormal immune reactions as early as about seven years before the expected onset of dementia.
These results demonstrate that in cases of Alzheimer‘s, inflammatory processes in the brain evolve dynamically and are precursors of dementia. These immune responses can be detected by means of a protein in the cerebrospinal fluid, offering physicians the possibility to trace the progression of the disease. The study results are published in the journal “Science Translational Medicine”.
The scientists headed by Prof. Christian Haass and Prof. Michael Ewers were able to detect an increasing immune activity of the brain by measuring levels of the protein “TREM2” in the cerebrospinal fluid. TREM2 is segregated by certain immune cells of the brain - called microglia - and thus reflects their activity. In cases of the inherited form of Alzheimer’s disease, the timing for the onset of dementia can be precisely predicted. The researchers were therefore able to monitor the rise of TREM2 levels years before the expected occurrence of dementia symptoms.
“The activity of the microglia is stimulated by dying brain cells, not by the deposits of amyloid proteins, called plaques, which also occur in Alzheimer’s disease,” Haass notes. ”The microglia may have a protective function, which however comes to a standstill as the disease progresses. We are therefore searching for drugs to increase the activity of the microglia.”
Paper:
http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/8/369/369ra178
Source:
https://www.dzne.de/en/about-us/public-relations/news/2016/press-release-no-23.html
Gif: flow of the CSF - sagittal plane - ( CSF is produced by choroid plexus of each ventricle)
#neuroscience #CSF #Alzheimer's #research #health #medicine
Little is known about the role of the brain‘s immune system in Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at the Munich site of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and the hospital of the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) Munich have found an early immune response in individuals with a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer‘s: their brain’s showed abnormal immune reactions as early as about seven years before the expected onset of dementia.
These results demonstrate that in cases of Alzheimer‘s, inflammatory processes in the brain evolve dynamically and are precursors of dementia. These immune responses can be detected by means of a protein in the cerebrospinal fluid, offering physicians the possibility to trace the progression of the disease. The study results are published in the journal “Science Translational Medicine”.
The scientists headed by Prof. Christian Haass and Prof. Michael Ewers were able to detect an increasing immune activity of the brain by measuring levels of the protein “TREM2” in the cerebrospinal fluid. TREM2 is segregated by certain immune cells of the brain - called microglia - and thus reflects their activity. In cases of the inherited form of Alzheimer’s disease, the timing for the onset of dementia can be precisely predicted. The researchers were therefore able to monitor the rise of TREM2 levels years before the expected occurrence of dementia symptoms.
“The activity of the microglia is stimulated by dying brain cells, not by the deposits of amyloid proteins, called plaques, which also occur in Alzheimer’s disease,” Haass notes. ”The microglia may have a protective function, which however comes to a standstill as the disease progresses. We are therefore searching for drugs to increase the activity of the microglia.”
Paper:
http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/8/369/369ra178
Source:
https://www.dzne.de/en/about-us/public-relations/news/2016/press-release-no-23.html
Gif: flow of the CSF - sagittal plane - ( CSF is produced by choroid plexus of each ventricle)
#neuroscience #CSF #Alzheimer's #research #health #medicine
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Luminous Salar de Uyuni
A scene in high contrast this thoughtful night skyscape is a modern composition inspired by M. C. Escher's lithograph Phosphorescent Sea. In it, bright familiar stars of Orion the Hunter and Aldebaran, eye of Taurus the Bull, hang in clear dark skies above a distant horizon. Below, faintly luminous edges trace an otherworldly constellation of patterns in mineral-crusted mud along the Uyuni Salt Flat of southwest Bolivia. The remains of an ancient lake, the Uyuni Salt Flat, Salar de Uyuni, is planet Earth's largest salt flat, located on the Bolivian Altiplano at an altitude of about 3,600 meters. Escher's 1933 lithograph also featured familiar stars in planet Earth's night, framing The Plough or Big Dipper above waves breaking on a more northern shore.
Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Stephanie Ziyi Ye
#space #nasa #universe #saltflat
A scene in high contrast this thoughtful night skyscape is a modern composition inspired by M. C. Escher's lithograph Phosphorescent Sea. In it, bright familiar stars of Orion the Hunter and Aldebaran, eye of Taurus the Bull, hang in clear dark skies above a distant horizon. Below, faintly luminous edges trace an otherworldly constellation of patterns in mineral-crusted mud along the Uyuni Salt Flat of southwest Bolivia. The remains of an ancient lake, the Uyuni Salt Flat, Salar de Uyuni, is planet Earth's largest salt flat, located on the Bolivian Altiplano at an altitude of about 3,600 meters. Escher's 1933 lithograph also featured familiar stars in planet Earth's night, framing The Plough or Big Dipper above waves breaking on a more northern shore.
Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Stephanie Ziyi Ye
#space #nasa #universe #saltflat
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Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder that can affect more than just your joints. In some people, the condition also can damage a wide variety of body systems, including the skin, eyes, lungs, heart and blood vessels.
An autoimmune disorder, rheumatoid arthritis occurs when your immune system mistakenly attacks your own body’s tissues.Unlike the wear-and-tear damage of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis affects the lining of your joints, causing a painful swelling that can eventually result in bone erosion and joint deformity.
Read & Learn:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/rheumatoid-arthritis/symptoms-causes/dxc-20197390
#medicine #rheumatoidarthritis #inflammatorydisorder
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder that can affect more than just your joints. In some people, the condition also can damage a wide variety of body systems, including the skin, eyes, lungs, heart and blood vessels.
An autoimmune disorder, rheumatoid arthritis occurs when your immune system mistakenly attacks your own body’s tissues.Unlike the wear-and-tear damage of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis affects the lining of your joints, causing a painful swelling that can eventually result in bone erosion and joint deformity.
Read & Learn:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/rheumatoid-arthritis/symptoms-causes/dxc-20197390
#medicine #rheumatoidarthritis #inflammatorydisorder
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