Category Health/Medical

The large and small Magellanic Clouds.
Credit: Andrew Lockwood

Two of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way – the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds – may have had a third companion, astronomers believe. Research published today describes how another “luminous” galaxy was likely engulfed by the Large Magellanic Cloud some 3 to 5 billion years ago. ICRAR Masters student Benjamin Armstrong, the lead author on the study, said most stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud rotate clockwise around the centre of the galaxy.

But, unusually, some stars rotate anti-clockwise. “For a while, it was thought that these stars might have come from its companion galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud,” Mr Armstrong said. “Our idea was that these stars might have come from a merger with another galaxy in the past.”

Mr...

This is a fruit fly.
Credit: Carnegie Institution for Science

Body organs such as the intestine and ovaries undergo structural changes in response to dietary nutrients that can have lasting impacts on metabolism, as well as cancer susceptibility, according to Carnegie’s Rebecca Obniski, Matthew Sieber, and Allan Spradling. Their work, published by Developmental Cell, used fruit flies, which are currently the most-sensitive experimental system for such detecting diet-induced cellular changes that are likely to be similar in mammals.

There are 3 major types of cells in fruit fly (and mammalian) intestines: Stem cells, hormone-producing cells, and nutrient-handling cells...

Senescent cells (represented here in green) no longer function but can broadcast inflammatory signals to the cells around them. These cells are implicated in a number of age-related diseases.
Credit: Image courtesy of Mayo Clinic

Zombie cells are the ones that can’t die but are equally unable to perform the functions of a normal cell. These zombie, or senescent, cells are implicated in a number of age-related diseases. And with a new letter in Nature, Mayo Clinic researchers have expanded that list.

In a mouse model of brain disease, scientists report that senescent cells accumulate in certain brain cells prior to cognitive loss. By preventing the accumulation of these cells, they were able to diminish tau protein aggregation, neuronal death and memory loss.

“Senescent cells are known to ac...

The researchers asked volunteers to react to simple stick drawings depicting scenes of physical inactivity and physical activity, and discovered that brain activity differed depending on the scene.
Credit: UBC Media Relations

Society has encouraged people to be more physically active, yet we are actually becoming less active. This new study offers a possible explanation: Our brains may be innately attracted to sedentary behavior. Electroencephalograms showed that test subjects had to summon extra brain resources when trying to avoid physical inactivity.

If getting to the gym seems like a struggle, a University of British Columbia researcher wants you to know this: the struggle is real, and it’s happening inside your brain...