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    A boundary dance of Amyloid-beta stepping into Dementia

    January 1, 2019, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    (a) An A-beta peptide that forms a beta-hairpin structure at the hydrophilic/hydrophobic interface. (b) View from the bottom of panel (a).
    Credit: ExCELLS/IMS

    Formation mechanism of the causative substances of Alzheimer’s disease revealed. Alzheimer’s disease is caused by aggregates of amyloid-beta peptides. This aggregation is accelerated at a cell membrane surface. The research group at ExCELLS revealed the reason of this phenomenon by molecular dynamics simulations and NMR experiments.

    Many proteins aggregate at higher concentrations and form spherical substances called oligomers and acicular substances called amyloid fibrils...

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    NASA Spaceship Zooms toward Farthest World ever Photographed

    January 1, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This artist's illustration obtained from NASA on December 21, 2018 shows the New Horizons spacecraft encountering 2014 MU69 – ni

    This artist’s illustration obtained from NASA on December 21, 2018 shows the New Horizons spacecraft encountering 2014 MU69 – nicknamed “Ultima Thule” – a Kuiper Belt object that orbits one billion miles beyond Pluto

    A NASA spaceship is zooming toward the farthest, and quite possibly the oldest, cosmic body ever photographed by humankind, a tiny, distant world called Ultima Thule some 4 billion miles (6.4 billion kilometers) away. The US space agency rang in the New Year with a live online broadcast to mark historic flyby of the mysterious object in a dark and frigid region of space known as the Kuiper Belt at 12:33 am January 1 (0533 GMT Tuesday).

    A guitar anthem recorded by legendary Queen guitarist Brian May—who also holds an advanced degree in astrophysics—was released just aft...

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    New Insights into Pion Condensation and the Formation of Neutron Stars

    December 30, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space


    A schematic view of the experimental setup around the hydrogen target (a). A PID plot produced with the SAMURAI spectrometer associated with the 132Sn incoming beam (b).

    Performing studies on a doubly magic isotope of tin, researchers have shown that the pion condensation should occur at around two times normal nuclear density, which can be realized in a neutron star with a mass of 1.4 times that of the Sun.

    In 1973, Russian physicist A.B. Migdal predicted the phenomenon of pion condensation above a critical, extremely high – several times higher than that for normal matter – nuclear density. Although this condensation has never been observed, it is expected to play a key role in the rapid cooling process of the core of neutron stars...

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    How Exercise Reduces Belly Fat in humans

    December 30, 2018, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    This graphical abstract shows that in abdominally obese people, exercise-mediated loss of visceral adipose tissue mass requires IL-6 receptor signaling.
    CREDIT
    Wedell-Neergaard, Lehrskov, and Christensen, et al. / Cell Metabolism

    Some of you may have made a New Year’s resolution to hit the gym to tackle that annoying belly fat. But have you ever wondered how physical activity produces this desired effect? A signaling molecule called interleukin-6 plays a critical role in this process, researchers report December 27 in the journal Cell Metabolism.

    As expected, a 12-week intervention consisting of bicycle exercise decreased visceral abdominal fat in obese adults...

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