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    Boosting your own Defenses against Heart Disease

    March 7, 2017, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    ATF6 is protective in the heart; it is expressed at high levels in the young heart, and low levels in the aged heart. Gene therapy studies that were done in the Glembotski lab at the SDSU Heart Institute have shown that restoring ATF6 in the aged mouse heart to levels in the young heart provides remarkable protection against heart disease, and could pave the way for development of this therapy for use in humans in the near future. Credit: Chris Glembotski

    ATF6 is protective in the heart; it is expressed at high levels in the young heart, and low levels in the aged heart. Gene therapy studies that were done in the Glembotski lab at the SDSU Heart Institute have shown that restoring ATF6 in the aged mouse heart to levels in the young heart provides remarkable protection against heart disease, and could pave the way for development of this therapy for use in humans in the near future. Credit: Chris Glembotski

    A protein found in the heart that is known to be involved in cellular stress responses in cancer cells is now believed to play a critical role in the ability of cardiac cells to combat heart disease and recover from a heart attack...

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    Low-Cost Monitoring Device uses Light to Quickly Detect Oil Spills

    March 6, 2017, Categories  Chemistry/Nanotechnology, Environment/Geology

    Researchers developed a device that uses florescence from oil (left) to detect its presence and identify the type of oil. The small and simple device incorporates inexpensive electronic components (right). Credit: Oscar Sampedro, Universidade de Vigo.

    Researchers developed a device that uses florescence from oil (left) to detect its presence and identify the type of oil. The small and simple device incorporates inexpensive electronic components (right). Credit: Oscar Sampedro, Universidade de Vigo.

    Simple sensing device could make cleanup easier by identifying the type of oil involved in a spill. The device is designed to float on the water, where it could remotely monitor a small area susceptible to pollution or track the evolution of contamination at a particular location. “Fast detection of a spill is crucial for a quick antipollution response to avoid, as much as possible, the progressive mixture of the oil into the water, which would make cleaning more difficult and inefficient,” said Jose R...

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    Imaging the Inner Workings of a Sodium-metal Sulfide Battery for 1st time

    March 6, 2017, Categories  Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    Jun Wang (sitting), Christopher Eng (standing), Jiajun Wang (left, laptop screen), and Liguang Wang of Brookhaven National Laboratory used transmission x-ray microscopy combined with spectroscopy to produce the colored maps shown on the large screen. These maps reveal the structural expansion (and the resulting cracks/fractures) and chemical composition changes that occur as sodium ions (Fe, green) are added to and removed from iron sulfide (FeS, red) during the battery's first discharge/charge cycle. The pristine iron sulfide (box in upper left) does not return to its original state after this cycle, as some sodium ions remain trapped in the core (box in lower right). As a result, there is an initial loss in battery capacity. Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory

    Jun Wang (sitting), Christopher Eng (standing), Jiajun Wang (left, laptop screen), and Liguang Wang of Brookhaven National Laboratory used transmission x-ray microscopy combined with spectroscopy to produce the colored maps shown on the large screen. These maps reveal the structural expansion (and the resulting cracks/fractures) and chemical composition changes that occur as sodium ions (Fe, green) are added to and removed from iron sulfide (FeS, red) during the battery’s first discharge/charge cycle. The pristine iron sulfide (box in upper left) does not return to its original state after this cycle, as some sodium ions remain trapped in the core (box in lower right). As a result, there is an initial loss in battery capacity. Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory

    “We discovered that the ...

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    How a Mineral found in Martian meteorites may provide clues to Ancient Abundance of Water

    March 6, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    q. The dark, narrow, 100-meter-long streaks flowing downhill within the Hale Crater on Mars in this rendering are inferred to have been formed by flowing water in this false-color image that was draped on a digital terrain model. Credit: NASA JPL, University of Arizona 2. An impact crater on Mars, named Melas Dorsa, and its surroundings show a rich geologic history. The image was created by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express. Studies of the transformation of a synthetic version of a mineral known as whitlockite suggest that Mars had a more water-rich past than previously thought. Credit: G. Neukum/ESA,DLR, FU Berlin 3. Naturally formed crystals of the mineral whitlockite, which is rare on Earth, are visible in this sample on display at Canada’s Royal Ontario Museum. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

    1. The dark, narrow, 100-meter-long streaks flowing downhill within the Hale Crater on Mars in this rendering are inferred to have been formed by flowing water in this false-color image that was draped on a digital terrain model. Credit: NASA JPL, University of Arizona
    2. An impact crater on Mars, named Melas Dorsa, and its surroundings show a rich geologic history. The image was created by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express. Studies of the transformation of a synthetic version of a mineral known as whitlockite suggest that Mars had a more water-rich past than previously thought. Credit: G. Neukum/ESA,DLR, FU Berlin
    3. Naturally formed crystals of the mineral whitlockite, which is rare on Earth, are visible in this sample on display at Canada’s Royal Ontario Museum...

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