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- Secrets with life: brain-size-regulating microbes and underwater robotic stingrays
Secrets with life: brain-size-regulating microbes and underwater robotic stingrays
American scientists conducted an experiment on rodents, which proved that intestinal microorganisms living in the digestive system of mammals could have influenced the evolution of the human brain. Another team of researchers from the United States has assembled an underwater vehicle that mimics the movement of a stingray and due to this moves underwater at tremendous speed. Medics from Sechenov University have figured out how to cure migraine, headache and insomnia. Employees of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University have taught cells to reproduce "alien" DNA. And in the Institute of Physics of the Earth. O.Yu. Schmidt RAS offered a new method of studying space objects. Read the details in a selection of the most interesting news of the week from Izvestia.
Specialists have taught cells to reproduce "alien" DNA
Specialists from Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) and the Academic University have developed a technology to deliver DNA to the cell with the help of so-called nanowires. These are the thinnest filamentous nanocrystals of semiconductor compounds, which due to their unique geometry are able to penetrate the cell membrane. Through the resulting hole plasmid - a ring molecule of nucleic acid - enters the cell, and the cell begins to produce the alien protein encoded in it. Scientists call this process transfection. The technique can be used to produce medicines.
Photoluminescence from semiconductor nanowires
- The original idea was to create a system of transfection - the delivery of nucleic acids into cells. For modern life sciences, transfection is one of the most important tasks, because it makes it possible to force cells to synthesize not only those proteins that are embedded in their DNA, but also any other, arbitrary ones. Thus, on the one hand, it is possible to study the effect of turning on or off certain processes on a cell or even the whole organism, and on the other hand- to obtain in large quantities of the necessary proteins, such as monoclonal antibodies, widely used in the therapy of various diseases, - said senior researcher of the Academic University Stanislav Shmakov.
Particles from space will help find traces of interstellar comets
Scientists from the Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth. O.Yu. Schmidt Institute of Earth Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences have developed a way to identify objects whose place of origin is outside the solar system. The method is based on the study of space dust. Every day about 54 tons of such particles descend to the surface of our planet. Therefore, experts consider this substance to be one of the most significant sources of information about the cosmos.
Magnified cosmic dust particles
- Extraterrestrial dust particles differ both in type and place of formation. For example, there are background particles that arose as a result of the destruction of asteroids and comets. They were captured by the gravity of our planet and are present in its atmosphere as a constant component. There are also "splash" particles that were formed as a result of an explosion or ablation (blowing off the surface of a solid body) when space objects enter the dense layers of the Earth's gas shell, - told "Izvestia" one of the authors of the proposed methodology, a leading researcher at the geophysical observatory "Borok" - a branch of IFZ RAS Vladimir Celmovich.
The human brain has reached its size thanks to microbes in the intestine
Scientists at Northwestern University in the United States implanted microbes from the stomachs of two primate species with large brains like humans and small brains like macaques into mice. The results showed that mice with microbes from primates produced and expended more energy, while mice with microbes from species with small brains deposited more fat. The findings confirmed that microbes from the gut can influence evolution by altering the way an animal's body works.
- We know that the community of microbes living in the large intestine can produce compounds that affect various aspects of human biology. For example, causing changes in metabolism that can lead to insulin resistance and weight gain. Changes in the gut microbiota are an unexplored mechanism by which primate metabolism may contribute to the different energy needs of the brain, said Catherine Amato, an assistant professor of anthropology at the university.
Underwater vehicles will mimic the movements of stingrays
U.S. scientists have for the first time created an underwater vehicle that moves by thrusts similar to the flapping of stingray "wings." This energy-efficient method of underwater swimming allows you to develop a speed equivalent to 6.8 lengths of the moving object per second.
The developers plan to use the technology to create floating robots that will have high speed and maneuverability. Their movement mechanism scientists called spontaneous flicking impact, which is carried out by a "wing" with a pneumatic drive. After performing this operation, the plane of the "wing" automatically returns to its original position.
Russian scientists have proposed a new method of treatment of migraine and insomnia
Specialists of Sechenov University used a combination of drug and cognitive-behavioral therapy to fight migraine, insomnia and headache. During a year and a half of research, a positive effect was achieved in 85% of cases of these disorders.
A total of 96 patients with an average age of 35 years participated in the experiments . They were given 10 sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy for an hour and a half. For each participant medics made a certain plan of action and asked to keep a sleep diary. In this case, in the first weeks of their general well-being could slightly worsen, but after two or three weeks, sleep was equalized, and the number of migraine attacks was noticeably reduced. In addition, patients were asked to perform various relaxation exercises, breathing exercises, psychological techniques, etc.
