ab115630 at 10ug/ml staining GRASP1 in Human brain (cortex) tissue by immunohistochemistry (FFPE)

Learning and memory depend on cells’ ability to strengthen and weaken circuits in the brain. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine report that a protein involved in recycling other cell proteins plays an important role in this process. Removing this protein reduced mice’s ability to learn and recall information. “We see deficits in learning tasks,” says Richard Huganir, Ph.D., professor and director of the neuroscience department at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The team also found mutations in the gene that produces the recycling protein in a few patients with intellectual disability, and those genetic errors affected neural connections when introduced into mouse brain...

Active packaging extends food’s shelf life

KTU researchers are creating biodegradable food packaging materials, which, in addition, will also keep food fresh for longer. This innovation would solve 2 problems at once: assist in cutting down packaging waste and in reducing the number of food-borne illnesses. On average a European country citizen produces around 160 kilos of packaging waste; ~19% of which is plastic. “Food packaging is mainly made from various plastics, which are being produced from non-renewable sources and are non-biodegradable. Also, it is not always possible to recycle them as leftovers from food amount to almost 50% of the packaging waste,” says Paulius Pavelas Danilovas, KTU.

Headed by Danilovas, the team of researchers at the KTU Department of Polymer Chemistry and ...

This is a HSC-SSP image of a massive cluster of galaxies in the Virgo constellation showing numerous strong gravitational lenses. The distance to the central galaxy is 5.3 billion light years, while the lensed galaxies, apparent as the arcs around the cluster, are much more distant. This is a composite image in the g, r, and i band, and has a spatial resolution of about 0.6 arcseconds. Credit: NAOJ/HSC Project

The first massive data set of a “cosmic census” has been released using the largest digital camera on the Subaru Telescope. With its beautiful images now available for the public at large, figuring out the fate of the Universe has come one step closer. Data from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) was released to the public on February 27th, 2017...

This beautiful Hubble image reveals a young super star cluster known as Westerlund 1, only 15,000 light-years away in our Milky Way neighborhood, yet home to one of the largest stars ever discovered. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

This beautiful Hubble image reveals a young super star cluster known as Westerlund 1, only 15,000 light-years away in our Milky Way neighborhood, yet home to one of the largest stars ever discovered. Stars are classified according to their spectral type, surface temperature, and luminosity. While studying and classifying the cluster’s constituent stars, astronomers discovered that Westerlund 1 is home to an enormous star.

Originally named Westerlund 1-26, this monster star is a red supergiant (although sometimes classified as a hypergiant) with a radius over 1,500 tim...