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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 7, 2021 at 12:13pm

Why some people hallucinate ghosts

Scientists are developing a completely new “brain stress test” for evaluating the mental status of patients with Parkinson’s disease, the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease worldwide. It involves awakening the “ghosts” hidden in specific networks of the brain to predict the onset of hallucinations.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 7, 2021 at 12:03pm

A robot that can help you untangle your hair

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 7, 2021 at 11:54am

Scientists find dangerous chemical pollutants in disposable face masks

The rise in single-use masks, and the associated waste, due to the Covid-19 pandemic has been documented as a new cause of pollution.

Scientists  have uncovered potentially dangerous chemical pollutants that are released from disposable face masks when submerged in water.

The research reveals high levels of pollutants, including lead, antimony, and copper, within the silicon-based and plastic fibres of common disposable face masks.

https://www.livemint.com/science/health/scientists-find-dangerous-c...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 7, 2021 at 11:05am

Physicists describe new type of aurora

The famed northern and southern lights still hold secrets. In a new study, physicists describe a new phenomenon they call “diffuse auroral erasers,” in which patches of the background glow are blotted out, then suddenly intensify and reappear.

R. N. Troyer et al, The Diffuse Auroral Eraser, Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics (2021). DOI: 10.1029/2020JA028805

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-physicists-aurora.html?utm_source=nwl...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 7, 2021 at 10:34am

Flooding might triple in the mountains of Asia due to global warming
The "Third Pole" of the Earth, the high mountain ranges of Asia, bears the largest number of glaciers outside the polar regions. A Sino-Swiss research team has revealed the dramatic increase in flood risk that could occur across Earth's icy Third Pole in response to ongoing climate change. Focusing on the threat from new lakes forming in front of rapidly retreating glaciers, a team, led by researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, demonstrated that the related flood risk to communities and their infrastructure could almost triple. Important new hotspots of risk will emerge, including within politically sensitive transboundary regions of the Himalaya and Pamir. With significant increases in risk already anticipated over the next three decades, the results of the study, published in Nature Climate Change, underline the urgent need for forward-looking, collaborative, long-term approaches to mitigate future impacts in the region.

Increasing risk of glacial lake outburst floods from future Third Pole deglaciation, Nature Climate Change (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-021-01028-3

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-triple-mountains-asia-due-global.html...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 7, 2021 at 10:28am

A new method to trigger rain where water is scarce

A new method to trigger rain in places where water is scarce is being tested in the United Arab Emirates using unmanned drones that were designed and manufactured at the University of Bath. The drones carry an electric charge that is released into a cloud, giving cloud droplets the jolt they need to clump together and fall as rain.

This is one of the first times scientists have used drones in an attempt to stimulate rainfall from clouds. Established techniques for encouraging rainfall in dry countries involve low-flying aircraft or rockets dropping or firing solid particles (such as salt or silver iodide) into clouds. This is known as cloud seeding.

The drones, which are being tested as part of the UAE's rain-enhancement science-research program, are equipped with a payload of electric-charge emission instruments and sensors. Human operators on the ground will direct them towards low-hanging clouds, where they will release their charge. Clouds naturally carry positive and negative charges. By altering the balance of these charges, it is hoped that cloud droplets can be persuaded to grow and merge, eventually producing rain.

The research, which is published in the Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology

 R. Giles Harrison et al. Demonstration of a Remotely Piloted Atmospheric Measurement and Charge Release Platform for Geoengineering, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology (2020). DOI: 10.1175/JTECH-D-20-0092.1

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-method-trigger-scarce.html?utm_source...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 7, 2021 at 9:37am

Researchers find possible novel migraine therapy

By discovering a potential new cellular mechanism for migraines, researchers may have also found a new way to treat chronic migraine.

 the dynamic process of routing and rerouting connections among nerve cells, called neural plasticity, is critical to both the causes and cures for disorders of the central nervous system such as depression, chronic pain, and addiction.

The structure of the cell is maintained by its cytoskeleton which is made up of the protein, tubulin. Tubulin is in a constant state of flux, waxing and waning to change the size and shape of the cell. This dynamic property of the cell allows the nervous system to change in response to its environment.

Tubulin is modified in the body through a chemical process called acetylation. When tubulin is acetylated it encourages flexible, stable cytoskeleton; while tubulin deacetylation—induced by histone deacetylase 6, or HDAC6, promotes cytoskeletal instability.

Studies in mice models show that decreased neuronal complexity may be a feature, or mechanism, of chronic migraine. When HDAC6 is inhibited, tubulin acetylation and cytoskeletal flexibility is restored. Additionally, HDAC6 reversed the cellular correlates of migraine and relieved migraine-associated pain, according to the study.

This work suggests that the chronic migraine state may be characterized by decreased neuronal complexity, and that restoration of this complexity could be a hallmark of anti-migraine treatments. This work also forms the basis for development of HDAC6 inhibitors as a novel therapeutic strategy for migraine.

This research reveals a way to possibly reset the brain toward its pre-chronic migraine state.

 Zachariah Bertels et al, Neuronal complexity is attenuated in preclinical models of migraine and restored by HDAC6 inhibition, eLife (2021). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.63076

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-05-migraine-therapy.html?utm_so...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 7, 2021 at 9:33am

Study sheds more light on rate of rare blood clots after Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine

A large study from Denmark and Norway published by The BMJ today sheds more light on the risk of rare blood clots in adults receiving their first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

The findings show slightly increased rates of vein blood clots including clots in the veins of the brain, compared with expected rates in the general population. However, the researchers stress that the risk of such adverse events is considered low.

Cases of rare blood clots in people who have recently received their first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine have been reported. Whether these cases represent excess events above expected rates in the general population has, however, been debated.

Both the UK and European medicine regulators say the benefits of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine still outweigh the risks.

To explore this further, researchers based in Denmark and Norway set out to compare nationwide rates of blood clots and related conditions after vaccination with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine with those in the general populations of the two countries.

Their findings are based on 280,000 people aged 18-65 who received a first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in Denmark and Norway from February 2021 through to 11 March 2021.

Using national health records, they identified rates of events, such as heart attacks, strokes, deep vein blood clots and bleeding events within 28 days of receiving a first vaccine dose and compared these with expected rates in the general populations of Denmark and Norway.

In the main analysis, the researchers found 59 blood clots in the veins compared with 30 expected, corresponding to 11 excess events per 100,000 vaccinations. This included a higher than expected rate of blood clots in the veins of the brain, known as cerebral venous thrombosis (2.5 events per 100,000 vaccinations).

However, they found no increase in the rate of arterial clots, such as heart attacks or strokes.

Arterial events, venous thromboembolism, thrombocytopenia, and bleeding after vaccination with Oxford-AstraZeneca ChAdOx1 in Denmark and Norway: population based cohort study, www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1114

Opinion: Thrombosis and bleeding after the Oxford-AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccination, blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/05/05/t … covid-19-vaccination

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-05-rare-blood-clots-oxford-astr...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 7, 2021 at 9:09am

If you are not making any silly mistakes, your brain is not working hard enough. 

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 6, 2021 at 6:09am

Biologists discover a trigger for cell extrusion

For all animals, eliminating some cells is a necessary part of embryonic development. Living cells are also naturally sloughed off in mature tissues; for example, the lining of the intestine turns over every few days.

One way that organisms get rid of unneeded cells is through a process called extrusion, which allows cells to be squeezed out of a layer of tissue without disrupting the layer of cells left behind. MIT biologists have now discovered that this process is triggered when cells are unable to replicate their DNA during cell division.

The researchers discovered this mechanism in the worm C. elegans, and they showed that the same process can be driven by mammalian cells; they believe extrusion may serve as a way for the body to eliminate cancerous or precancerous cells.

Cell extrusion is a mechanism of cell elimination used by organisms as diverse as sponges, insects, and humans.

The discovery that extrusion is driven by a failure in DNA replication was unexpected and offers a new way to think about and possibly intervene in certain diseases, particularly cancer.

Most of the cells that end up getting extruded are unusually small, and are produced from an unequal cell division that results in one large daughter cell and one much smaller one. The researchers showed that if they interfered with the genes that control this process, so that the two daughter cells were closer to the same size, the cells that normally would have been extruded were able to successfully complete the cell cycle and were not extruded.

The researchers also showed that the failure of the very small cells to complete the cell cycle stems from a shortage of the proteins and DNA building blocks needed to copy DNA. Among other key proteins, the cells likely don't have enough of an enzyme called LRR-1, which is critical for DNA replication. When DNA replication stalls, proteins that are responsible for detecting replication stress quickly halt cell division by inactivating a protein called CDK1. CDK1 also controls cell adhesion, so the researchers hypothesize that when CDK1 is turned off, cells lose their stickiness and detach, leading to extrusion.

Replication stress promotes cell elimination by extrusion, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03526-y

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-biologists-trigger-cell-extrusion.htm...

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