Science Ahead

For neurologists treating patients with neuro-degenerative diseases and spinal chord injuries, the greatest challenge is to find a reliable therapy to mend the damaged nerve or in some special cases to trigger regrowth of neurons. The prevalent strategy to stimulate growth of nerve cells involved a protein called laminin that acted as a backbone to a nerve cell stimulating chemical. Being water soluble, laminin would soon dissolve in the water inside the body.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have arrived with a unique solution to regrow nerve cells. Christiane Gumera and Yadong Wang have shown in their study published in the latest issue of the journal Advanced Materials, that polymer coated with neurotransmitter acetylcholine can help regrow nerve cells.

It seems like gulping cups of coffee during exams to stay awake may soon be outdated. All those sleepy souls may be free from the almost ritualistic drinking of coffee [or tea], smoking cigarettes one after the other, all of it for one purpose — keeping sleep at bay and being able to slough hard. A team of US scientists have found a chemical, which promises the same effect on our body that a good sound sleep provides.

A nasal spray of a hormone found in brain — Orexin A — has been found to have reversed the symptoms of sleep-deprived monkeys, allowing them to behave like those who had been given adequate rest. The discovery is believed to be very useful in treating excessive sleep disorder or narcolepsy.

Once you are hooked on drugs, it will take a time to recover. Withdrawal symptoms and a sense of euphoria will always be at hand for those who have been victims of drug addiction and wanting to change. But, with the introduction of a cocaine vaccine, all the pains and burdens of a recovering patient will soon be over.

Recently, a couple, who are both doctors, presented their innovative cocaine vaccine, believed to be the first in the market that will ease the treatments for drug addicts. Baylor College of Medicine researchers Dr. Tom Kosten, a psychiatry professor and his wife Therese, a psychologist and neuroscientist in Houston joined forces in developing a remedy for cocaine addiction. Dr. Kosten believes, with the help of their discovery, people eager to stop taking cocaine will be effectively helped.

There is some good news for the world of medicinal technology. Korean scientists have come up with a three-dimensional map that depicts a protein that is related to pneumonia. The development of this breakthrough map is expected to be of great help in the discovery of such antibiotics that would be able to fight the viruses that have become resistant to present treatment procedures, more effectively.

The team of scientists, led by Kim Eun-kyung, senior researcher at the biomedical research center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), have, for the first time ever, been able to develop a three-dimensional map of the FabK protein related to the pneumonia virus, using X-rays.

Robots have always fascinated humans with their ability to follow commands and execute them in a jiffy. These machines are structured in a way to make them resemble a human body in order to make them friendlier. However, even these robots seem to be outdated with the newest invention of nano robots or nanobots.

The nanobots are robots about 0.1 to 10 micrometers in size. These nanobots however, have a mission far bigger than their larger counterparts. They are planned to be used in delivering the medicine to a specific target in the body, which might otherwise not be possible. But, to propel these nanobots in the body, some trigger has to be used to properly deliver the medicine.

Futuristic devices are the only hope for physically disabled people to lead a close to healthy life. Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) through the non-interventional and interventional devices help physically challenged individuals to control artificial limbs, steer wheel wheelchairs and type messages by arousing neural impulses. Typical brain computer devices that are currently prevalent use electrodes in skull cap to sense brain waves with an EEG machine.

The greatest obstacle of the current available technology is that to activate the brain computer interface device an individual has to rely on external help to turn on and off the EEG-based devices. This means that the physically disabled people are still dependent on external aid that is by no means appealing to their desired independence.

Researchers at Graz University of Technology are working on a BCI device that would use other biological signals to trigger the brain impulses that requires no external help. In a study, the researchers led by Reinhold Scherer tested whether individuals could use voluntary spikes in their hearts to send signals that could turn on a BCI device. The subjects in the trial produced the spikes by breathing rapidly for a short period to activate a BCI, used a prosthetic hand, and then switch it off again.

The results from the trial was quite satisfactory but further study is required before switching over to the new BCI devices that could be activated by manipulating the heart beat.

Source:new scientist
Image:electric wheelchair

Chronic liver damages like viral activity, exposure to chemical pollutants, immune processes, metabolic disorders or even primary or secondary cancer growth lead to liver fibrosis. About 400,000 people died in the USA from “chronic liver disease and cirrhosis” between 1976 and 1980.

Till date, the only curative treatment available for end stage cirrhosis is transplantation, but the problem always stayed with the availability of donor organs even in the developed countries. To add to, the potential recipient’s clinical condition also limit the applicability of this technique.

But, it is only recently, scientists have come up with an innovative treatment for liver fibrosis. They claim their new development will not just stop, but also reverse the disease!

X-ray cameras inevitably bring to mind the beautiful in human body in all its glorious nakedness. If that’s what you have in mind, read no further. But if guns and weapons are what you want your x-ray camera to detect ThruVision’s T5000 will delight you.

If the recent news about suicide bombers has scared you out of your wits, T5000 will be your faithful buddy and detect weapons, drugs and of course explosives from as far as 25 meters. The camera detects something called t-rays (natural electromagnetic or Terahertz frequencies) bouncing off of human bodies and uses a software to check for non emitting objects. So that’s the key to finding all those nasty objects that infamous people like to carry under their clothes.

It’s in the Genes- yes! Scientists have finally found out the reason behind the problem which is affecting more and more people worldwide- Obesity. According to a study done by a group of scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, certain genes are responsible for storing fats in cells thereby making people prone to obesity and associated problems.

In an earlier discovery, certain genes were identified which synthesize fat in cells. But what actually made fat store in the cells is a basic question that scientists have been looking to answer for long now. The genes actually package the fat inside a layer of phospholipids and proteins, thereby making them form lipid droplets which enable cells to use fat as an energy source, but acquiring them in excess leads to obesity.

Coking and crying almost become synonymous when the dish in question involves onion. This is all about change, albeit in some years to come. Scientists have used the wonders of Genetic modification to create a new race of “tear-free” onions.

Crop and Food, a research institute in New Zealand has used gene silencing to end cooking woes once and for all. Dr Colin Eady, with his collaborators in Japan, is behind this GM onion and he claims that these would not only be tear-free but will also be healthier and tastier.