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    Category Health/Medical

    Scientists Hunt down the Brain Circuit Responsible for Alcohol Cravings

    March 20, 2019, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Confocal analysis at 63x magnification, followed by the three-dimensional reconstruction of neuronal cell bodies and branches. The image shows an example of eYFP and CRF in the same neuron. This rendered isosurface analysis demonstrated the colocalization of CRF immunoreactivity within CeA neurons that also expressed Cre-dependent eYFP and validates the crh-Cre rat as a tool to gain more direct access to CRF neurons to study their functional neuroanatomy.
    Credit: George lab

    Study may open the door to developing drug therapies or even gene therapies for alcohol addiction. Scientists at Scripps Research have found that they can reverse the desire to drink in alcohol-dependent rats – with the flip of a switch...

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    Supercrystal: A Hidden Phase of Matter Created by a Burst of Light

    March 19, 2019, Categories  Biology/Biotechnology, Health/Medical


    A 3D image of a supercrystal from phase-field simulations using the software ?-PRO.
    Credit: L-Q Chen Group, Penn State

    “Frustration” plus a pulse of laser light resulted in a stable “supercrystal” created by a team of researchers led by Penn State and Argonne National Laboratory, together with University of California, Berkeley, and two other national laboratories.

    This is one of the first examples of a new state of matter with long-term stability transfigured by the energy from a sub-pico-second laser pulse. The team’s goal, supported by the Department of Energy, is to discover interesting states of matter with unusual properties that do not exist in equilibrium in nature.

    “We are looking for hidden states of matter by taking the matter out of its comfortable state, which w...

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    More Vitamin D may improve Memory but too much may Slow Reaction Time

    March 17, 2019, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Vitamin D capsules.
    Photo: Sue Shapses/Rutgers University-New Brunswick

    Potential risks and benefits. A unique Rutgers-led study found that overweight and obese older women who took more than 3x the recommended daily dose of vitamin D showed improvements in memory and learning – but also had slower reaction times. The researchers hypothesize that slower reaction times may increase the risk of falling among older people.

    The researchers, whose work is in the Journals of Gerontology: Series A, used computers to assess the impact of vitamin D on cognitive function. The researchers evaluated three groups of women between 50 and 70 years old in a randomized controlled trial.

    One group took the recommended daily dose of 600 international units (IU), equivalent to 15 micrograms, of vitamin D ...

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    Solar-powered Moisture Harvester Collects and Cleans Water from Air

    March 17, 2019, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Fei Zhao (L), co author of the study, and Guihua Yu (R) of Yu Research Labs at UT Austin examining a sample of their newly-developed hydrogel.
    Credit: Cockrell School of Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin

    Access to clean water remains one of the biggest challenges facing humankind. A breakthrough by engineers at The University of Texas at Austin may offer a new solution through solar-powered technology that absorbs moisture from the air and returns it as clean, usable water.

    The breakthrough, described in a recent issue of the journal Advanced Materials, could be used in disaster situations, water crises or poverty-stricken areas and developing countries...

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