Genomic-scale exchange of mRNA between a parasitic plant and its hosts
Abstract: Movement of RNAs between cells of a single plant is well documented, but cross-species RNA transfer is largely unexplored. Cuscuta pentagona (dodder) is a parasitic plant that forms symplastic connections with its hosts and takes up host messenger RNAs (mRNAs). We sequenced transcriptomes of Cuscuta growing on Arabidopsis and tomato hosts to characterize mRNA transfer between species and found that mRNAs move in high numbers and in a bidirectional manner. The mobile transcripts represented thousands of different genes, and nearly half the expressed transcriptome of Arabidopsis was identified in Cuscuta. These findings demonstrate that parasitic plants can exchange large proportions of their transcriptomes with hosts, providing potential mechanisms for RNA-based interactions between species and horizontal gene transfer.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6198/808
What this means: A vampire-like parasitic plant could reveal new secrets of plant communication. According to a study published Thursday in Science, species of the strangleweed plant are able to share genetic information in the form of messenger RNA molecules (mRNA) with the plants they invade. It's possible that this RNA shuffling is allowing for communication between the parasite and the host, and if we crack their codes we could exploit them to protect crops.

All babies lack sufficient vitamin K at birth, putting them at risk for severe bleeding in the brain or intestines until they get the vitamin by eating solid foods, typically around six months of age. The vitamin is essential for blood clotting, and a vitamin K injection after birth eliminates this bleeding risk.
Therefore, Vitamin K injections are recommended at birth in some countries because the vitamin does not cross the placenta well during pregnancy. The shot provides infants with enough vitamin K to last until they get sufficient amounts through diet. Vitamin K deficiency bleeding has always occurred but for years the condition was less common than other causes of infant death.

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/112/1/191.full

Asthma and odors: The role of risk perception in asthma exacerbation
Fragrances and strong odors have been characterized as putative triggers that may exacerbate asthma symptoms and many asthmatics readily avoid odors and fragranced products. However, the mechanism by which exposure to pure, non-irritating odorants can elicit an adverse reaction in asthmatic patients is still unclear and may involve both physiological and psychological processes. The aim of this study was to investigate how beliefs about an odor's relationship to asthmatic symptoms could affect the physiological and psychological responses of asthmatics.
Results

Predictably, manipulations of perceived risk altered both the quality ratings of the fragrance as well as the reported levels of asthma symptoms. Perceived risk also modulated the inflammatory airway response.
Conclusions

Expectations elicited by smelling a perceived harmful odor may affect airway physiology and impact asthma exacerbations.
Highlights

•Asthmatics were exposed to an odor characterized as ‘asthmogenic’ or ‘therapeutic’.

•Irritation and annoyance ratings were elevated in the asthmogenic group.

•The asthmogenic group showed a rapid and persistent increase in airway inflammation.
http://www.jpsychores.com/article/S0022-3999%2814%2900252-9/abstract

Bypassing The Brain To Walk Again
Bypassing the spinal cord with an artificial neural connection enables subjects to control their legs by swinging their arms.
A Japanese research group has successfully made an artificial connection from the brain to the locomotion center, bypassing the spinal cord with a computer interface. This research, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, allowed subjects to perform a walking-like behavior in their legs by swinging their arms.
Neural networks in the locomotion center of the spinal cord are capable of producing rhythmic movements, such as swimming and walking, even when isolated from the brain. The brain controls the spinal locomotion center by sending commands to the spinal locomotion center to start, stop and change waking speed. In most cases of spinal cord injury, the loss of this link from the brain to the locomotion center causes problems with walking.
Although gait disturbance in individuals with spinal cord injury is attributed to the interruption of neural pathways from brain to the spinal locomotor center, neural circuits located above and below the lesion maintain most of their functions. An artificial connection that bridges the lost pathway and connects brain to spinal circuits has potential to ameliorate the functional loss.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25122909

How You Meditate Matters
Research shows that Vajrayana meditation can enhance cognitive performance, while Theravada meditation is relaxing.
not all meditation techniques produce similar effects of body and mind. Indeed, a study published in PLoS One demonstrates that different types of Buddhist meditation—namely the Vajrayana and Theravada styles of meditation—elicit qualitatively different influences on human physiology and behaviour, producing arousal and relaxation responses respectively.
The researchers had also observed an immediate dramatic increase in performance on cognitive tasks following only Vajrayana styles of meditation. They noted that such dramatic boost in attentional capacity is impossible during a state of relaxation. Their results show that Vajrayana and Theravada styles of meditation are based on different neurophysiological mechanisms, which give rise to either an arousal or relaxation response.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone....

A new study shows that weak electromagnetic stimulation could reorganize the brain with few side effects.
Researchers have shown that electromagnetic stimulation can alter brain organization which may make your brain work better.

In results from a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers from The University of Western Australia and the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in France demonstrated that weak sequential electromagnetic pulses (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, or rTMS) on mice can shift abnormal neural connections to more normal locations.

The discovery has important implications for treatment of many nervous system disorders related to abnormal brain organisation such as depression, epilepsy and tinnitus.

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/264545425_Low-Intensity_Rep...

At higher levels, fluoride in drinking water can lead to pitted teeth and discoloration. It also makes bones brittle and more prone to fractures. And recent studies have also linked high levels of fluoride exposure with IQ deficits.

Mapping the Mind: An Interview with Eric Kandel from Imaginal Disc on Vimeo.

Forces driving epithelial wound healing
Abstract of the research paper:
A fundamental feature of multicellular organisms is their ability to self-repair wounds through the movement of epithelial cells into the damaged area. This collective cellular movement is commonly attributed to a combination of cell crawling and ‘purse-string’ contraction of a supracellular actomyosin ring. Here we show by direct experimental measurement that these two mechanisms are insufficient to explain force patterns observed during wound closure. At early stages of the process, leading actin protrusions generate traction forces that point away from the wound, showing that wound closure is initially driven by cell crawling. At later stages, we observed unanticipated patterns of traction forces pointing towards the wound. Such patterns have strong force components that are both radial and tangential to the wound. We show that these force components arise from tensions transmitted by a heterogeneous actomyosin ring to the underlying substrate through focal adhesions. The structural and mechanical organization reported here provides cells with a mechanism to close the wound by cooperatively compressing the underlying substrate.
http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nphys3040.html

First Global Conference on Science Advice to Governments
Responding to the increasingly global nature of societal challenges, practitioners of science advice to governments formed a global network to share practice and strengthen their ties, at the first global conference on science advice to governments, which was held in Auckland, New Zealand on 28-29 August, 2014.
This Science Advice to Governments meeting had its origin in an editorial in Nature two years ago by James Wilsdon and Robert Doubleday
Summary of Panel 3: Science advice in the context of opposing political/ideological positions
Posted on August 28, 2014

One of the most difficult situations for science advisors to government is when evidence contradicts entrenched political (ideological) positions, whether these are within national, regional or local governments. Well established examples are seen in debates around controlled substances and public health.

Panellists discussed what models of science advice giving (ex: individual experts; commissioned reports; representative committees) have worked best in participating countries.
For more details please visit:
http://www.globalscienceadvice.org/

Micromagnetic resonance relaxometry for rapid label-free malaria diagnosis
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.3622.html
A quick method detects by-products of the parasite's growth in the blood and is more portable and less error-prone than conventional tests
Jongyoon Han, a bioengineer at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Centre, and his colleagues, have devised a diagnostic test that avoids many of the problems faced by today's anlysts. Their method, described in a paper published on 31 August in Nature Medicine, works with a tiny droplet — as little as 10 microlitres — of blood, and can provide a diagnosis in just a few minutes. In addition, it does not rely on the expertise of a technician.

When P. falciparum invades red blood cells and feeds on their contents, it breaks down haemoglobin into amino acids and haem, a chemical compound that contains iron. Free haem is toxic, so the parasite quickly converts it into an insoluble crystal known as haemozoin.

“Haemozoin crystals behave like little magnets,” explains Han. He and his team used a technique called magnetic resonance relaxometry (MRR) to detect the magnetic signal of haemozoin in human blood samples that they infected with P. falciparum, and in samples from mice infected withPlasmodium berghei, a mouse model of the disease.

MRR is a type of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, a workhorse of chemical analysis. Although NMR machines are notoriously bulky, in recent years researchers have scaled them down to sizes small enough to fit on a benchtop. Another important step towards bringing the technique to the field, Han says, was that his team was able to detect haemozoin directly in the blood sample without first processing it in the lab.

A better understanding of plasma cell signaling could lead to better vaccines and therapies for autoimmune disease.
Adaptor protein DOK3 promotes plasma cell differentiation by regulating the expression of programmed cell death 1 ligands
http://www.pnas.org/content/111/31/11431
Shp1 signalling is required to establish the long-lived bone marrow plasma cell pool
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140630/ncomms5273/full/ncomms5273...
Scientists have uncovered the crucial role of two signalling molecules involved in the development and production of plasma cells. These discoveries, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America and Nature Communications, advance the understanding of plasma cells and antibody response, and may lead to optimised vaccine development and autoimmune disease treatments.

A study in rats suggests that eating junk food weakens self control, leading to overeating and obesity.
Cafeteria diet impairs expression of sensory-specific satiety and stimulus-outcome learning
http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00852/abs...
A range of animal and human data demonstrates that excessive consumption of palatable food leads to neuroadaptive responses in brain circuits underlying reward. Unrestrained consumption of palatable food has been shown to increase the reinforcing value of food and weaken inhibitory control; however, whether it impacts upon the sensory representations of palatable solutions has not been formally tested. These experiments sought to determine whether exposure to a cafeteria diet consisting of palatable high fat foods impacts upon the ability of rats to learn about food-associated cues and the sensory properties of ingested foods. We found that rats fed a cafeteria diet for 2 weeks were impaired in the control of Pavlovian responding in accordance to the incentive value of palatable outcomes associated with auditory cues following devaluation by sensory-specific satiety. Sensory-specific satiety is one mechanism by which a diet containing different foods increases ingestion relative to one lacking variety. Hence, choosing to consume greater quantities of a range of foods may contribute to the current prevalence of obesity. We observed that rats fed a cafeteria diet for 2 weeks showed impaired sensory-specific satiety following consumption of a high calorie solution. The deficit in expression of sensory-specific satiety was also present 1 week following the withdrawal of cafeteria foods. Thus, exposure to obesogenic diets may impact upon neurocircuitry involved in motivated control of behavior.

Conspicuous absences at global science advice meeting held recently.
The Science Advice to Governments conference, a gathering of scientists and science advisers from nearly 50 countries in Auckland, New Zealand: The conference explored how scientists should convey knowledge to policymakers, and what obstacles stand in their way. Discussions ranged from how to provide scientific input during humanitarian emergencies to how a country can effectively build science capacity.
However, there were no young scientists, women & scientists from most of the developing countries! And no politicians!There were several complaints. The gaps in representation at scientific conferences were, unfortunately, symptomatic of a wider problem. Although it would be beneficial to society to bring more women and young people from developing countries into the scientific community, they often have trouble breaking in because the “old boys’ network” is too quick to “discount” their work, which tends to explore new paradigms and use interdisciplinary approaches that challenge the status quo.
So?!
Let us think about the remedy.

What makes humans special?

The Milky Way is part of a much vaster galactic network than previously thought. The galaxy drifts along in a stream of galaxies on the outskirts of a newly identified collection of galaxy clusters, a supercluster named Laniakea. This supercluster — whose name means “heaven immeasurable” in Hawaiian — holds the mass of 100 million billion suns within a region that spans about 520 million light-years.

Astrophysicist R. Brent Tully of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and colleagues sifted through data describing the positions and velocities of over 8,000 galaxies to get a fresh look at the Milky Way’s place in space. After accounting for the motion caused by the expansion of the universe, the team created a three-dimensional view of how gravity molds the galaxy’s cosmic neighborhood.

The new map, published in the Sept. 4 Nature, reveals Laniakea’s boundaries and weblike framework. The Milky Way lies along one of the lines of that web, in a tributary feeding one of many galactic rivers. Those streams converge in a gravitational valley roughly 200 million light-years away near two massive galaxy clusters: Norma and Centaurus. Their combined gravity appears to be drawing in other galaxies and clusters within Laniakea, including the Milky Way.

Milky Way connected to a vast network of galaxies
Astronomers name home galactic supercluster Laniakea
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v513/n7516/full/nature13674.html

Removing both breasts may not boost cancer survival
Women diagnosed with cancer in one breast who choose to have both removed may have no better survival rates than women who opt for breast-conserving surgery and radiation. In a study of nearly 190,000 women, the 10-year mortality rate was 18.8 percent for women who had double mastectomies, 20.1 for those who had single mastectomies and 16.8 percent for women who had lumpectomies plus radiation, researchers report in the Sept. 3 JAMA. The slightly lower survival rate among women who had only one breast removed may be influenced by socioeconomic status and race and ethnicity, the researchers say.
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1900512&resu...

Rabies races up nerve cells
Virus may speed to the brain by hitching a ride with a protein
Rabies Virus Hijacks and Accelerates the p75NTR Retrograde Axonal Transport Machinery
Abstract:
Rabies virus (RABV) is a neurotropic virus that depends on long distance axonal transport in order to reach the central nervous system (CNS). The strategy RABV uses to hijack the cellular transport machinery is still not clear. It is thought that RABV interacts with membrane receptors in order to internalize and exploit the endosomal trafficking pathway, yet this has never been demonstrated directly. The p75 Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) receptor (p75NTR) binds RABV Glycoprotein (RABV-G) with high affinity. However, as p75NTR is not essential for RABV infection, the specific role of this interaction remains in question. Here we used live cell imaging to track RABV entry at nerve terminals and studied its retrograde transport along the axon with and without the p75NTR receptor. First, we found that NGF, an endogenous p75NTR ligand, and RABV, are localized in corresponding domains along nerve tips. RABV and NGF were internalized at similar time frames, suggesting comparable entry machineries. Next, we demonstrated that RABV could internalize together with p75NTR. Characterizing RABV retrograde movement along the axon, we showed the virus is transported in acidic compartments, mostly with p75NTR. Interestingly, RABV is transported faster than NGF, suggesting that RABV not only hijacks the transport machinery but can also manipulate it. Co-transport of RABV and NGF identified two modes of transport, slow and fast, that may represent a differential control of the trafficking machinery by RABV. Finally, we determined that p75NTR-dependent transport of RABV is faster and more directed than p75NTR-independent RABV transport. This fast route to the neuronal cell body is characterized by both an increase in instantaneous velocities and fewer, shorter stops en route. Hence, RABV may employ p75NTR-dependent transport as a fast mechanism to facilitate movement to the CNS.
http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal...

Synthetic Fabrics Host More Stench-Producing Bacteria

Micrococcus bacteria thrive on the open-air lattice of synthetic fibers—where they sit chomping on the fatty acids in our sweat, turning them into shorter, stinkier molecules.
http://aem.asm.org/content/early/2014/08/12/AEM.01422-14.full.pdf+h...

Mutations: Stop that nonsense!
Cells can avoid the effects of so-called ‘nonsense’ mutations by several methods, including a newly discovered mechanism driven by microRNA molecules.
http://elifesciences.org/content/3/e04300

Fact or Fiction?: What the experts say...
Oxytocin Is the “Love Hormone”
Love is complicated, and so is the purported molecule d’amour
“Oxytocin is not the love hormone,” says Larry Young of Emory University. “It’s tuning us into social information and allowing us to analyze it at higher resolution.”

And from Shelley Taylor of the University of California, Los Angeles: “It’s never a good idea to map a psychological profile onto a hormone; they don’t have psychological profiles.”
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-oxytocin-...

How much does the Earth weigh?
According to Terry Quinn, emeritus director of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, the Earth weighs about 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Kg.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29108451

Broken Signals Lead To Neurodegeneration
Neurogenerative diseases could be explained by modifications of the IP3 receptor which lock it in a closed state.
Scientists have discovered that a cell receptor widely involved in intracellular calcium signaling can be locked into a closed state by enzyme action, and that this locking may potentially play a role in the reduction of neuron signaling seen in neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s disease.
This insight could eventually lead to the development of new drug therapies for a number of neurodegenerative diseases that place a high burden on patients and society
Aberrant calcium signaling by transglutaminase-mediated posttranslational modification of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/09/04/1409730111

Researchers have identified the mechanism the influenza A virus uses to introduce genetic diversity and increase its chances of survival.
Scientists have demonstrated that the influenza A virus makes use of its error-prone genetic replication to increase diversity, thereby facilitating viral survival under different selection pressures. This research has been published in Nature Communications.
Generation and characterization of influenza A viruses with altered polymerase fidelity
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140903/ncomms5794/full/ncomms5794...

Researchers in Japan have engineered a membrane with advanced features capable of removing harmful greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Their findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, may one day contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions and cleaner skies.
Scientists have developed a membrane that selects for carbon dioxide while allowing air to pass through 100 times faster than existing polymers.
Photo-oxidative enhancement of polymeric molecular sieve membranes
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n5/full/ncomms2942.html

Where Is Human Evolution Taking Us?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/where-is-human-evolution-...

Scientists say ozone layer is recovering, credit phase-out of aerosol chemicals since the '80s
Earth protective but fragile ozone layer is finally starting to rebound, says a United Nations panel of scientists. Scientists hail this as rare environmental good news, demonstrating that when the world comes together it can stop a brewing ecological crisis.
http://montreal-protocol.org//new_site/en/index.php

The role of anti-oxidants in diabetes:
Antioxidants in Diabetes
http://www.brunswicklabs.com/blog/bid/354571/Antioxidants-in-Diabetes

Understanding anemia:
A critical role for mTORC1 in erythropoiesis and anemia
Abstract

Red blood cells (RBC) must coordinate their rate of growth and proliferation with the availability of nutrients, such as iron, but the signaling mechanisms that link nutritional state to RBC growth are incompletely understood. We performed a screen for cell types that have high levels of signaling through mTORC1, a protein kinase that couples nutrient availability to cell growth. This screen revealed that reticulocytes show high levels of phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6, a downstream target of mTORC1. We found that mTORC1 activity in RBCs is regulated by dietary iron, and that genetic activation or inhibition of mTORC1 results in macrocytic or microcytic anemia, respectively. Finally, ATP competitive mTOR inhibitors reduced RBC proliferation and were lethal after treatment with phenylhydrazine, an inducer of hemolysis. These results identify the mTORC1 pathway as a critical regulator of RBC growth and proliferation, and establish that perturbations in this pathway result in anemia.

http://elifesciences.org/content/early/2014/09/09/eLife.01913#sthas...

World's First Three-Dimensional Printed Car Made in Chicago
An Arizona company is the first to use 3-D printing to make a car
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/world-s-first-three-dimen...

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This news has not been confirmed at when doubts were raised about the study. But still it is a beautiful explanation of expansion theory:

I Contain Multitudes

Our bodies are a genetic patchwork, possessing variation from cell to cell. Is that a good thing?
You are an assemblage of genetically distinctive cells, some of which have radically different operating instructions.
Even though each of your cells supposedly contains a replica of the DNA in the fertilized egg that began your life, mutations, copying errors and editing mistakes began modifying that code as soon as your zygote self began to divide. In your adult body, your DNA is peppered by pinpoint mutations, riddled with repeated or rearranged or missing information, even lacking huge chromosome-sized chunks. Your data is hopelessly corrupt!

Surprised to hear this? Click on the link to find out more...
http://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20140821-i-contain-multitudes/

The convergence of nanotechnology, biology, information technology, additive manufacturing, AI, new materials and robotics means we no longer have to wait for natural selection to change our lives
We Are Playing God with a Declassified Future
The Future, Declassified: Megatrends That Will Undo the World Unless We Take Action ( Book)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Future-Declassified-Megatrends-Unless/dp/...

Device that detects anaemia in 60 seconds
A simple testing device can now diagnose anaemia in just 60 seconds— a discovery that would allow inexpensive at-home self-monitoring of persons with chronic forms of the disease.
The disposable self-testing device analyzes a single droplet of blood using a chemical reagent that produces visible colour changes corresponding to different levels of anaemia.

The basic test produces results in about 60 seconds and requires no electrical power. A companion smartphone application can automatically correlate the visual results to specific blood hemoglobin levels.
"Patients could use this device in a way that's very similar to how diabetics use glucose-monitoring devices, but this will be even simpler because this is a visual-based test that doesn't require an additional electrical device to analyse the results".

Using a two-piece prototype device, the test works this way: A patient sticks a finger with a lance similar to those used by diabetics to produce a droplet of blood. The device's cap, a small vial, is then touched to the droplet, drawing in a precise amount of blood using capillary action. The cap containing the blood sample is then placed onto the body of the clear plastic test kit, which contains the chemical reagent. After the cap is closed, the device is briefly shaken to mix the blood and reagent.

"When the capillary is filled, we have a very precise volume of blood, about five microliters, which is less than a droplet - much less than what is required by other anaemia tests," explained Erika Tyburski.

Blood haemoglobin then serves as a catalyst for a reduction-oxidation reaction that takes place in the device. After about 45 seconds, the reaction is complete and the patient sees a colour ranging from green-blue to red, indicating the degree of anaemia.

A label on the device helps with interpretation of the colour or the device could be photographed with a smartphone running an application written by Georgia Tech undergraduate student Alex Weiss and graduate student William Stoy. The app automatically correlates the colour to a specific haemoglobin level and could one day be used to report the data to a physician.
The results of the one-minute test were consistent with those of the conventional analysis. The smartphone app produced the best results for measuring severe anaemia.

The test doesn't require a skilled technician or a draw of venous blood and you see the results immediately.
The device will be available to the public sometime in 2016.

An interesting story of a woman who doesn't have a part of her brain!

Woman of 24 found to have no cerebellum in her brain

The discovery was made when the woman was admitted to the Chinese PLA General Hospital of Jinan Military Area Command in Shandong Province complaining of dizziness and nausea. She told doctors she'd had problems walking steadily for most of her life, and her mother reported that she hadn't walked until she was 7 and that her speech only became intelligible at the age of 6.

Doctors did a CAT scan and immediately identified the source of the problem – her entire cerebellum was missing!  The space where it should be was empty of tissue. Instead it was filled with cerebrospinal fluid, which cushions the brain and provides defence against disease.

The cerebellum's main job is to control voluntary movements and balance, and it is also thought to be involved in our ability to learn specific motor actions and speak. Problems in the cerebellum can lead to severe mental impairment, movement disorders, epilepsy or a potentially fatal build-up of fluid in the brain. However, in this woman, the missing cerebellum resulted in only mild to moderate motor deficiency, and mild speech problems such as slightly slurred pronunciation. Her doctors describe these effects as "less than would be expected", and say her case highlights the remarkable plasticity of the brain. The case highlights just how adaptable the organ is.

For more information, click on the links: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329861.900-woman-of-24-foun...

http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/08/22/brain.awu239

Robot captures first images of Great Pyramid's secret chamber
An autonomous robot has transmitted the first images from inside a tiny chamber in the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt - something that has not been seen by anyone in 4,500 years.
What this robot found was 4,500-year-old hieroglyphs written in red paint, and carvings in the stone that could have been made by the stone masons at the time the chamber was being built.

"If these hieroglyphs could be deciphered they could help Egyptologists work out why these mysterious shafts were built”.
"Red-painted numbers and graffiti are very common around Giza,” added Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian from Harvard University and director of the Giza Archives at the Museum of Fine Arts in the US. "They are often masons' or work-gangs' marks, denoting numbers, dates or even the names of the gangs."

The robot was also able to get its stretchy camera in and around the mysterious empty chamber to get a look at the back of the stone door for the first time. This allowed it to film parts of the metal pins that had never been seen before, and their beautifully looped tips suggest that rather than being functional, they were probably just ornamental features.
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20141009-26154.html

Artificial spleen cleans up blood

Device improves survival in rats after severe infections.

Magnetic nanobeads in the 'biospleen' device bind to Escherichia coli (left) and Staphylococcus aureus (right) and remove them from blood.

Researchers have developed a high-tech method to rid the body of infections — even those caused by unknown pathogens. A device inspired by the spleen can quickly clean blood of everything from Escherichia coli to Ebola, researchers report on 14 September in Nature Medicine.
In search of a way to clear any infection, a team led by Donald Ingber, a bioengineer at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering in Boston, Massachusetts, developed an artificial 'biospleen' to filter blood.
The device uses a modified version of mannose-binding lectin (MBL), a protein found in humans that binds to sugar molecules on the surfaces of more than 90 different bacteria, viruses and fungi, as well as to the toxins released by dead bacteria that trigger the immune overreaction in sepsis.

The researchers coated magnetic nanobeads with MBL. As blood enters the biospleen device, passes by the MBL-equipped nanobeads, which bind to most pathogens. A magnet on the biospleen device then pulls the beads and their quarry out of the blood, which can then be routed back into the patient.
http://www.nature.com/news/artificial-spleen-cleans-up-blood-1.15917

How to engage with participants in field research

Building trust is the crucial foundation for successful research in the field

Trust comes from listening and understanding as much as from giving information

Good communication will often bring suggestions that improve your research
http://www.scidev.net/global/communication/practical-guide/engage-p...

Molecular mechanisms of birth defects among older women: Why older women can have babies with Down Syndrome
Researchers studying cell division in fruit flies have discovered a pathway that may improve understanding of molecular mistakes that cause older women to have babies with Down syndrome.
The study shows for the first time that new protein linkages occur in immature egg cells after DNA replication and that these replacement linkages are essential for these cells to maintain meiotic cohesion for long periods.

The study appears in the journal PLOS Genetics.
As women age, so do their eggs and during a woman's thirties, the chance that she will conceive a Down syndrome fetus increases dramatically. Most such pregnancies arise from mistakes in a process called meiosis, a specialized cell division that creates gametes, or sex cells (sperm and eggs). Mistakes in meiosis can lead to gametes with the wrong number of chromosomes, which can cause Down syndrome.
Accurate chromosome segregation during meiosis depends on protein linkages, or cohesion, that hold together sister chromatids, which are identical copies of a replicated chromosome. Recent evidence from Dartmouth and other laboratories indicates that meiotic cohesion weakens over time, contributing to the maternal age effect.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140911135440.htm

Teenager from India invents device that can convert breath to speech

Sixteen-year-old Arsh Shah Dilbagi has developed a new technology called ‘TALK’, which is a cheap and portable device to help people who are physically incapable of speaking express themselves.
Sixteen-year-old Arsh Shah Dilbagi has developed a new technology called ‘TALK’, which is a cheap and portable device to help people who are physically incapable of speaking express themselves. Right now, 1.4 percent of the world’s population has very limited or no speech, due to conditions such as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), locked-in syndrome (LIS), Encephalopathy (SEM), Parkinson’s disease, and paralysis. So that's literally a group of people that could match the entire population of Germany, and all of them unable to speak.

Stephen Hawking has a device to help him communicate, but it's extremely expensive, costing several thousand dollars, and is also quite bulky. What Dilbagi has managed to do is invent a device that achieves the same thing, but can be purchased for just $80.

The way TALK works is that it’s able to translate the user’s breath into electric signals using a special device called a MEMS Microphone. This technology is composed of a pressure-sensitive diaphragm etched directly into a silicon chip, and an amplifying device to increase the sound of the user’s breath.

By expelling two types of breaths into the device, with different intensities and timing, the user is able to spell out words in Morse code. "A microprocessor then interprets the breathes into dots and dashes, converting them into words. The words are then sent to a second microprocessor that synthesises them into voice,” says Whitney Mallett at Motherboard. "The morse code can either be translated into English, or specific commands and phrases. The device features nine different voices varying in age and gender."

People who do not have a means of properly expressing themselves, like those living with speech disorders, experience a lower than average life expectancy because of it. Dilbagi’s aim for this device is to give millions of people like this a 'voice' for the first time.
http://kkartlab.in/group/some-science

Does smiling really help you even if you are not happy? ('Don't worry be happy! Even if your entire world collapses!', say some people).
But does that really work?
According to a recent study - smiling can backfire for some!
Surprisingly, for a section of the population, smiling actually reduced well-being. The more these people smiled, the less happy they were. This is like finding that there are some diners who, after consuming a four-course meal, feel less full!

Who are these people for whom extra smiling fails to generate corresponding increases in joy? In the answer lies the ultimate irony. It turns out that the gloomiest people were those who believed in precisely that somatic feedback hypothesis. People who realized, in other words, that you can “smile to feel happy” (called proactive smilers) were exactly those who did not enjoy the benefits of the theory they espoused. On the other hand, for those who believed that smiling is a genuine indicator of mood—those who subscribed to commonsense notions about the causal order of action and emotion (reactive smilers)—smiling boosted happiness.

How does understanding the benefits of proactive smiling eradicate its effect? It remains a matter of scientific opinion. What’s likely is that knowing too much about somatic feedback throws a wrench in the circuitry, undercutting the message the body sends to itself. At first, the brain says, “I’m smiling; I must be happy!” But upon learning that smiling can be a proactive strategy, this turns into, “I’m smiling; I must be trying to make myself happy—I must be sad!”
Well, read the entire story here:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-smiling-can-backfire/...

Donald E. Ingber, Founding Director of the Wyss Institute, Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School, and Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, talks about his article "Mechanobiology and Developmental Control," which he wrote with Tadanori Mammoto and Akiko Mammoto for the 2013 Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology. He discusses the role of physical and mechanical forces in the control of cell development and disease, which he says is as important as chemicals and genes.

Read the article online at: http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/...

A young startup at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has developed a multi-functional water filtration membrane. Its inventors hope it will render current membranes in the water industry obsolete.

Traditional polymer-based water filtration membranes tend to end up clogged up with what they have filtered out. As a result, biofouling and organic compounds are a huge problem for the $200 billion global water industry.

With the membranes developed by NTU’s Nano Sun, biofouling is greatly reduced as organic material and bacteria are killed and destroyed when they come into contact with the membranes. Any organic material that does not decompose can also be quickly burnt by putting the membrane in an oven heated to 700 degrees celsius, since it is able to withstand high heat unlike traditional polymer membranes.

Additionally, the new membranes allow for an flow rate of at least ten times faster than current water filtration membranes.

Underlying this new invention is a titanium dioxide nanotechnology patented by Nano Sun. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles are proven to kill bacteria and to break down organic compounds in waste water with the help of sunlight or ultra violet (UV) rays.
University spin-off develops multi-functional membranes that can be used in water filtration, chemical and food industries.

Filtering Water With Nanotechnology
Source: http://www.ntu.edu.sg/Pages/home.aspx

Companies in Japan and India have started utilizing floating power farms to circumvent the lack of space on land.
Floating Solar Farms For India and Japan

To What Extent Does the Reporting Behavior of the Media Regarding a Celebrity Suicide Influence Subsequent Suicides?
A study investigated the nature of media coverage of a national entertainer's suicide and its impact on subsequent suicides. After the celebrity suicide, the number of suicide-related articles reported surged around 80 times in the week after the suicide compared with the week prior. Many articles (37.1%) violated several critical items on the World Health Organization suicide reporting guidelines, like containing a detailed suicide method. Most gender and age subgroups were at significantly higher risk of suicide during the 4 weeks after the celebrity suicide. Results imply that massive and noncompliant media coverage of a celebrity suicide can cause a large-scale copycat effect.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sltb.12109/abstract;jses...