Brief Exposure to Rapamycin has the same Anti-Aging effects as Lifelong Treatment

Rapamycin is currently the most promising anti-ageing drug. ©Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing

Imagine you could take a medicine that prevents the decline that come with age and keeps you healthy. Scientists are trying to find a drug that has these effects. The current most promising anti-ageing drug is Rapamycin, known for its positive effects on life and health span in experimental studies with laboratory animals. To obtain the maximum beneficial effects of the drug, it is often given lifelong. However, even at the low doses used in prevention for age-related decline, negative side effects may occur, and it is always desirable to use the lowest effective dose...

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‘Naturally Insulating’ Material Emits Pulses of Superfluorescent Light at Room Temperature

Graphic shows process of achieving superflorescence at room temperature.
The process for achieving superflorescence at room temperature is shown in a new paper in Nature Photonics.

Researchers looking to synthesize a brighter and more stable nanoparticle for optical applications found that their creation instead exhibited a more surprising property: bursts of superfluorescence that occurred at both room temperature and regular intervals. The work could lead to the development of faster microchips, neurosensors, or materials for use in quantum computing applications, as well as a number of biological studies.

Superfluorescence occurs when atoms within a material synchronize and simultaneously emit a short but intense burst of light...

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X-Shaped Radio Galaxies might Form More Simply than expected

X-shaped radio galaxies might form more simply than expected

Simple simulation accidentally leads to X-shaped galaxy for first time. When astronomers use radio telescopes to gaze into the night sky, they typically see elliptical-shaped galaxies, with twin jets blasting from either side of their central supermassive black hole. But every once in a while — less than 10% of the time — astronomers might spot something special and rare: An X-shaped radio galaxy, with four jets extending far into space.

Although these mysterious X-shaped radio galaxies have confounded astrophysicists for two decades, a new Northwestern University study sheds new insight into how they form — and its surprisingly simple. The study also found that X-shaped radio galaxies might be more common than previously thought.

The study will be published on Aug...

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Revealing Roles of Dementia Proteins in Normal Memory

This study maps tau interactomes in mouse brain and neurons using proximity labelling. Direct interaction of tau with the vesicle and receptor trafficking factor NSF inhibits NSF ATPase activity and controls synaptic glutamate receptors underlying associative learning.

New research has revealed how the tau protein, a critical element in the formation of Alzheimer’s disease, is also involved in normal learning processes in the healthy brain — potentially providing a focal point for future drug therapies.

In the study, published in The EMBO Journal, Flinders University researchers have provided new insights into the tau protein, whose role has long been enigmatic, finding it may help molecular processes of memory formation.

Employing a sensitive method named proximity labelling, th...

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