Drinking Matcha Tea can Reduce Anxiety

This shows a drawing of a mouse and photo of Matcha extract
Matcha is the finely ground powder of new leaves from shade-grown (90% shade) Camellia sinensis green tea bushes. The image is credited to Kurauchi, Y et al.

Using the ‘elevated plus maze’ test with mice, researchers have shown that Matcha green tea can reduce anxiety. Their experiments revealed that Matcha’s anxiolytic effects are due to the activation of dopamine D1 receptors and certain serotonin receptors. The researchers suggest that adding a little Matcha tea to your diet may improve your health.

Many different countries have a tea culture, and Japanese Matcha tea is growing in popularity around the world. In Japan, Matcha has a long history of being used for various medicinal purposes...

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Scientists find Urine Test could offer a non-invasive approach for diagnosis of IBS

Philip Britz-McKibbin in his lab. Photo by JD Howell.

Scientists at McMaster University have identified new biomarkers for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) in urine, which could lead to better treatments and reduce the need for costly and invasive colonoscopy procedures currently used for diagnosis.

Little is known about the causes of IBS, a chronic and often debilitating gastrointestinal disorder which affects hundreds of thousands of Canadians in which diagnosis is complicated, patients experience a vast spectrum of symptoms and treatment options are limited.

“Diagnostic testing for IBS involves a long process of excluding other related gut disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease,” explains Philip Britz-McKibbin, lead author of the study and a professor in McMaster’s Depa...

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Window Film Could Even out the Indoor Temperature using Solar Energy

Image showing the technology
The molecule captures energy from the sun and releases it later as heat. Illustration: Yen Strandqvist / Chalmers

A window film with a specially designed molecule could be capable of taking the edge off the worst midday heat and instead distributing it evenly from morning to evening. The molecule has the unique ability to capture energy from the sun’s rays and release it later as heat. This is shown by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, in the scientific journal Advanced Science.

On sunny summer days it can be little short of unbearable to stay indoors or in cars. The heat radiates in and creates an unpleasantly high temperature for people, animals and plants...

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Black Hole brings down Curtain on Jellyfish Galaxy’s Star Turn

Jellyfish galaxy JO201. Credit: Callum Bellhouse and the GASP collaboration
Jellyfish galaxy JO201. Credit: Callum Bellhouse and the GASP collaboration

Astronomers have studied the role of an excited black hole in the death of an exotic ‘jellyfish’ galaxy. The supermassive black hole at the center of jellyfish galaxy JO201 is stripping away gas and throwing it out into space, accelerating suppression of star formation and effectively ‘killing’ the galaxy.

Jellyfish galaxies are spectacular objects that undergo a dramatic process of transformation as they plunge through the dense core of a galaxy cluster at supersonic speeds. External drag forces tear away the galaxy’s gas, in a process known as ram-pressure stripping, leaving extended tentacles of trailing material.

The fate of JO201 has been revealed as part of a study of 114 jellyfish galaxies by th...

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