Aggregated alpha-synuclein in the neurons of the appendix.
Credit: Courtesy of Viviane Labrie | Van Andel Research Institute

Appendix acts as a reservoir for disease-associated proteins; appendectomy lowers the risk of developing Parkinson’s. Removing the appendix early in life reduces the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease by 19 to 25%, according to the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind, published today in Science Translational Medicine.

The findings also solidify the role of the gut and immune system in the genesis of the disease, and reveal that the appendix acts as a major reservoir for abnormally folded alpha-synuclein proteins, which are closely linked to Parkinson’s onset and progression.

“Our results point to the appendix as a site of origin for Parkinson’s and pr...

Payload of the sounding rocket and all those involved in the undertaking, among them scientists of the MAIUS-1 project, employees of the German Aerospace Center, and employees of the Esrange rocket launch site.
Credit: Copyright Thomas Schleuss, DLR

Physicists put in place groundwork for accurately testing Einstein’s equivalence principle. A team of scientists from Germany has succeeded in creating a Bose-Einstein condensate for the first time in space on board a research rocket. On January 23, 2017 at 3:30 a.m. Central European Time, the MAIUS-1 mission was launched into space from the Esrange Space Center in Sweden. After a detailed analysis, the results have been published recently in the journal Nature...

N-body simulation of the merger of a Milky Way-like galaxy (with its stars in blue) and a smaller disky galaxy resembling the Small Magellanic Cloud in mass (with it stars in red). At the beginning, the two galaxies are clearly separated, but gravity pulls them together and this leads to the full accretion of the smaller one. Distinguishing the accreted stars from the rest is not easy by the final stage, but it is possible using the motions of the stars and their chemical composition. Credit
Credit: H.H. Koppelman, A. Villalobos, A. Helmi (University of Groningen)

Some ten billion years ago, the Milky Way merged with a large galaxy. The stars from this partner, named Gaia-Enceladus, make up most of the Milky Way’s halo and also shaped its thick disk, giving it its inflated form...

The superior fascicle of the anterior talofibular ligament (1) is an intra-articular non-isometric structure, that is, it relaxes when the foot is on dorsal flexion and it stresses when in plantar flexion. The interior fascicle of the anterior talofibular ligament (2), together with the calcaneofibular ligament (3) and arciform fibbers that unify them, create the new lateral fibulotalocalcanean complex. This is an extra-articular and isometric structure, that is, it is always tense and stabilizes the ankle in any foot position. Credit: University of Barcelona

Researchers describe a new ligament in the lateral side of the ankle. The ligament complex would explain chronic pain after an ankle sprain...