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Lunatic Labs is a startup company by a mechanical engineer. While working on our own little projects Loony Labs keeps everyone current with science-related news, or just random science thoughts.
Dr. Jekyll
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- December 14, 2015
- 04:40 PM
- 442 views
Emotion processing in the brain changes with tinnitus severity
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Tinnitus, otherwise known as ringing in the ears, affects nearly one-third of adults over age 65. The condition can develop as part of age-related hearing loss or from a traumatic injury. In either case, the resulting persistent noise causes varying amounts of disruption to everyday life. While some tinnitus patients adapt to the condition, many others are forced to limit daily activities as a direct result of their symptoms. A new study reveals that people who are less bothered by their tinnitu........ Read more »
Fatima T. Husain et al. (2015) Increased frontal response may underlie decreased tinnitus severity. PLOS ONE. info:/10.1371/journal.pone.0144419
- December 13, 2015
- 03:34 PM
- 420 views
The world’s smallest terrorist: Virus hijacks protein machine and then kills the host
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Bacteriophages are viruses that infect and kill bacteria. The name originates from the Greek ‘phagos’ which means ‘to devour’. Bacteriophages were discovered 100 years ago because of their ability to replicate in a pathogenic bacterium, kill it and thereby cure the patient. As a small spaceship landing on the moon, the microscopic particles land on the surface of the bacteria where they inject their deadly genetic material.... Read more »
Gytz H, Mohr D, Seweryn P, Yoshimura Y, Kutlubaeva Z, Dolman F, Chelchessa B, Chetverin AB, Mulder FA, Brodersen DE.... (2015) Structural basis for RNA-genome recognition during bacteriophage Qβ replication. Nucleic acids research. PMID: 26578560
- December 12, 2015
- 04:59 PM
- 394 views
Discovery puts designer dopamine neurons within reach
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
For decades, the elusive holy grail in Parkinson’s disease research has been finding a way to repair faulty dopamine neurons and put them back into patients, where they will start producing dopamine again. Researchers have used fetal material, which is difficult to obtain and of variable quality. Embryonic stem cells represented a tremendous innovation, but making dopamine neurons from stem cells is a long process with a low yield.... Read more »
Jiang, H., Xu, Z., Zhong, P., Ren, Y., Liang, G., Schilling, H., Hu, Z., Zhang, Y., Wang, X., Chen, S.... (2015) Cell cycle and p53 gate the direct conversion of human fibroblasts to dopaminergic neurons. Nature Communications, 10100. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10100
- December 11, 2015
- 02:58 PM
- 419 views
Healthy or sick? Tiny cell bubbles may hold the answer
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Rutgers scientists have uncovered biological pathways in the roundworm that provide insight into how tiny bubbles released by cells can have beneficial health effects, like promoting tissue repair, or may play a diabolical role and carry disease signals for cancer or neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.... Read more »
Juan Wang, Rachel Kaletsky, Malan Silva, April Williams, Leonard A. Haas, Rebecca J. Androwski, Jessica N. Landis, Cory Patrick, Alina Rashid, Dianaliz Santiago-Martinez, Maria Gravato-Nobre, Jonathan Hodgkin, David H. Hall, Coleen T. Murphy, Maureen M. B. (2015) Cell-Specific Transcriptional Profiling of Ciliated Sensory Neurons Reveals Regulators of Behavior and Extracellular Vesicle Biogenesis. Current Biology. info:/10.1016/j.cub.2015.10.057
- December 10, 2015
- 08:36 PM
- 676 views
LSD changes consciousness by reorganizing human brain networks
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
LSD is known to cause changes in consciousness, including “ego-dissolution”, or a loss of the sense of self. Despite a detailed knowledge of the action of LSD at specific serotonin receptors, it has not been understood how this these pharmacological effects can translate into such a profound effect on consciousness.... Read more »
Lebedev, A., Lövdén, M., Rosenthal, G., Feilding, A., Nutt, D., & Carhart-Harris, R. (2015) Finding the self by losing the self: Neural correlates of ego-dissolution under psilocybin. Human Brain Mapping, 36(8), 3137-3153. DOI: 10.1002/hbm.22833
- December 9, 2015
- 03:38 PM
- 690 views
Computing with time travel
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Why send a message back in time, but lock it so that no one can ever read the contents? Because it may be the key to solving currently intractable problems. It turns out that an unopened message can be exceedingly useful. This is true if the experimenter entangles the message with some other system in the laboratory before sending it.... Read more »
Yuan, X., Assad, S., Thompson, J., Haw, J., Vedral, V., Ralph, T., Lam, P., Weedbrook, C., & Gu, M. (2015) Replicating the benefits of Deutschian closed timelike curves without breaking causality. npj Quantum Information, 15007. DOI: 10.1038/npjqi.2015.7
- December 8, 2015
- 03:28 PM
- 513 views
Self-consciousness: Beyond the looking-glass and what dogs found there
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
That man’s best friend has a conscience is what every owner would be willing to bet, without even thinking about it for a moment. This means that dogs have self-consciousness. But the problem in science is that ideas and assumptions must be demonstrated. It is not enough for someone to have an inkling of something for it to be considered a scientific fact. Self-awareness, or self-consciousness, has been studied mainly by examining the responses of animals and children to their reflection in th........ Read more »
Cazzolla Gatti, R. (2015) Self-consciousness: beyond the looking-glass and what dogs found there. Ethology Ecology , 1-9. DOI: 10.1080/03949370.2015.1102777
- December 7, 2015
- 07:30 PM
- 422 views
Seeing viruses in a new light
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Want to make a virus? It’s easy: combine one molecule of genomic nucleic acid, either DNA or RNA, and a handful of proteins, shake, and in a fraction of a second you’ll have a fully-formed virus. While that may sound like the worst infomercial ever, in many cases making a virus really is that simple. Viruses such as influenza spread so effectively, and as a result can be so deadly to their hosts, because of their ability to spontaneously self-assemble in large numbers.... Read more »
Faez, S., Lahini, Y., Weidlich, S., Garmann, R., Wondraczek, K., Zeisberger, M., Schmidt, M., Orrit, M., & Manoharan, V. (2015) Fast, Label-Free Tracking of Single Viruses and Weakly Scattering Nanoparticles in a Nanofluidic Optical Fiber. ACS Nano. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5b05646
- December 6, 2015
- 03:51 PM
- 440 views
Certain herpes viruses can infect human neurons
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
For years, researchers have noted a tantalizing link between some neurologic conditions and certain species of the herpes virus. In patients with Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and cerebellar ataxia, among other neuropathies, the cerebrospinal fluid teems with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Yet, the nature of that link has remained unclear, as it has been assumed that EBV, as well as other viruses in the same sub-family, called gammaherpesviruses, cannot infect neurons.... Read more »
Jha, H., Mehta, D., Lu, J., El-Naccache, D., Shukla, S., Kovacsics, C., Kolson, D., & Robertson, E. (2015) Gammaherpesvirus Infection of Human Neuronal Cells. mBio, 6(6). DOI: 10.1128/mBio.01844-15
- December 5, 2015
- 04:28 PM
- 477 views
No two faces are the same
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
For the very first time, researchers have been able to show that the causes of congenital face blindness can be traced back to an early stage in the perceptual process. These findings are crucial, not just for our understanding of face recognition, but also because they allow us to understand the processes behind the recognition of any visually presented object.... Read more »
Lueschow, A., Weber, J., Carbon, C., Deffke, I., Sander, T., Grüter, T., Grüter, M., Trahms, L., & Curio, G. (2015) The 170ms Response to Faces as Measured by MEG (M170) Is Consistently Altered in Congenital Prosopagnosia. PLOS ONE, 10(9). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0137624
- December 4, 2015
- 10:20 PM
- 460 views
How is a developing brain assembled?
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
As far as biologists have come in understanding the brain, much remains to be revealed. One significant challenge is determining the formation of complex neuronal structures made up of billions of cells in the human brain. As with many biological challenges, researchers are first examining this question in simpler organisms, such as worms.... Read more »
Christensen RP, Bokinsky A, Santella A, Wu Y, Marquina-Solis J, Guo M, Kovacevic I, Kumar A, Winter PW, Tashakkori N.... (2015) Untwisting the Caenorhabditis elegans embryo. eLife. PMID: 26633880
- December 3, 2015
- 02:11 PM
- 377 views
Exposure to violence makes you more likely to lie, cheat
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Can watching a violent movie make you more likely to lie, cheat or steal? What about reading a violent book? While that may seem like a stretch, a new research study shows it may be the case. The study finds that exposure to human violence is strongly linked to an increase in cheating for monetary gain. In other words, violence may be making us less ethical.... Read more »
Gubler, J., Herrick, S., Price, R., & Wood, D. (2015) Violence, Aggression, and Ethics: The Link Between Exposure to Human Violence and Unethical Behavior. Journal of Business Ethics. DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2926-4
- December 2, 2015
- 08:18 PM
- 826 views
Our pale blue dot in the wake of destruction
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
This is our home, that pale blue dot, dwarfed by an arrow that takes up less space on your screen than this sentence. For all our might and “overwhelming” intelligence, if we flexed our mental might and developed a weapon to destroy this pale blue dot, it would almost certainly go unnoticed in the universe.... Read more »
Carl Sagan. (2007) The Voyager 1 spacecraft image shows the earth as a pale blue dot against the black of deep space. Science Direct. DOI: 10.1016/B978-008044045-3/50001-3
- December 1, 2015
- 04:03 PM
- 512 views
Antidepressant medication protects against compounds linked to dementia
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
In addition to treating depression, a commonly used antidepressant medication also protects against compounds that can cause memory loss and dementia, a Loyola University Medical Center study has found. The study found that blood levels of two neurotoxic compounds dropped significantly in depressed patients after they were treated with the antidepressant escitalopram (Lexapro).... Read more »
Halaris, A., Myint, A., Savant, V., Meresh, E., Lim, E., Guillemin, G., Hoppensteadt, D., Fareed, J., & Sinacore, J. (2015) Does escitalopram reduce neurotoxicity in major depression?. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 118-126. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2015.04.026
- November 30, 2015
- 06:58 PM
- 401 views
Novel insights into genetic cause of autoimmune diseases
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
A collaboration between researchers at the Babraham Institute and the University of Manchester has mapped the physical connections occurring in the genome to shed light on the parts of the genome involved in autoimmune diseases. Using a new technique, called Capture Hi-C, the team revealed novel insights into how changes in the genetic sequence have a biological effect and increase the risk of disease.... Read more »
Martin, P., McGovern, A., Orozco, G., Duffus, K., Yarwood, A., Schoenfelder, S., Cooper, N., Barton, A., Wallace, C., Fraser, P.... (2015) Capture Hi-C reveals novel candidate genes and complex long-range interactions with related autoimmune risk loci. Nature Communications, 10069. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10069
- November 29, 2015
- 03:06 PM
- 438 views
Mental health risk for new dads
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Researchers have found anxiety around the arrival of a new baby is just as common as postnatal depression, and the risks for men are nearly as high as for women. Mental health researcher Dr Liana Leach reviewed 43 separate studies and found anxiety before and after a child arrives is just as prevalent as depression, affecting around one in ten men, around half the rate for women.... Read more »
Leach, L., Poyser, C., Cooklin, A., & Giallo, R. (2016) Prevalence and course of anxiety disorders (and symptom levels) in men across the perinatal period: A systematic review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 675-686. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2015.09.063
- November 28, 2015
- 03:20 PM
- 426 views
The silence of the genes, an epigenetic tale
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Research led by Dr. Keiji Tanimoto from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, has brought us closer to understanding the mechanisms underlying the phenomenon of genomic imprinting. In this intriguing event, one copy of a gene is ‘turned off’, or silenced, depending on whether it was derived from the mother or the father.... Read more »
Matsuzaki H, Okamura E, Takahashi T, Ushiki A, Nakamura T, Nakano T, Hata K, Fukamizu A, & Tanimoto K. (2015) De novo DNA methylation through the 5'-segment of the H19 ICR maintains its imprint during early embryogenesis. Development (Cambridge, England), 142(22), 3833-44. PMID: 26417043
- November 27, 2015
- 03:05 PM
- 463 views
Synapse discovery could lead to new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
A team of researchers led by UNSW Australia scientists has discovered how connections between brain cells are destroyed in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease – work that opens up a new avenue for research on possible treatments for the degenerative brain condition.... Read more »
Leshchyns’ka, I., Liew, H., Shepherd, C., Halliday, G., Stevens, C., Ke, Y., Ittner, L., & Sytnyk, V. (2015) Aβ-dependent reduction of NCAM2-mediated synaptic adhesion contributes to synapse loss in Alzheimer’s disease. Nature Communications, 8836. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9836
- November 26, 2015
- 04:37 PM
- 330 views
Stem cell study paves the way for patient therapies
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Stem cells that have been specifically developed for use as clinical therapies are fit for use in patients, an independent study of their genetic make-up suggests. The research – which focused on human embryonic stem cells – paves the way for clinical trials of cell therapies to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, age-related degeneration of the eyes and spinal cord injury.... Read more »
Canham, M., Van Deusen, A., Brison, D., De Sousa, P., Downie, J., Devito, L., Hewitt, Z., Ilic, D., Kimber, S., Moore, H.... (2015) The Molecular Karyotype of 25 Clinical-Grade Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines. Scientific Reports, 17258. DOI: 10.1038/srep17258
- November 25, 2015
- 07:40 PM
- 533 views
Closing the loop on an HIV escape mechanism
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Nearly 37 million people worldwide are living with HIV. When the virus destroys so many immune cells that the body can’t fight off infection, AIDS will develop. The disease took the lives of more than a million people last year.... Read more »
Lu, M., Hou, G., Zhang, H., Suiter, C., Ahn, J., Byeon, I., Perilla, J., Langmead, C., Hung, I., Gor'kov, P.... (2015) Dynamic allostery governs cyclophilin A–HIV capsid interplay. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201516920. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1516920112
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