Neuroscientists Record Novel Responses to Faces from Single Neurons in Humans

This figure shows the kind of stimuli used in the study: whole faces (left) and only partly revealed faces. According to the researchers, the surprising finding was that although neurons respond most strongly to seeing the whole face, they actually respond much less to the middle panel than to the far right panel, even though the middle panel is more similar to the whole face. (Credit: Ralph Adolphs, California Institute of Technology)

Science Daily  — Responding to faces is a critical tool for social interactions between humans. Without the ability to read faces and their expressions, it would be hard to tell friends from strangers upon first glance, let alone a sad person from a happy one. Now, neuroscientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), with the help of collaborators at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, have discovered a novel response to human faces by looking at recordings from brain cells in neurosurgical patients.

"The finding really surprised us," says Ueli Rutishauser, first author on the paper, a former postdoctoral fellow at Caltech, and now a visitor in the Division of Biology. "Here you have neurons that respond well to seeing pictures of whole faces, but when you show them only parts of faces, they actually respond less and less the more of the face you show. That just seems counterintuitive."The finding, described in the journalCurrent Biology, provides the first description of neurons that respond strongly when the patient sees an entire face, but respond much less to a face in which only a very small region has been erased.

The neurons are located in a brain region called the amygdala, which has long been known to be important for the processing of emotions. However, the study results strengthen a growing belief among researchers that the amygdala has also a more general role in the processing of, and learning about, social stimuli such as faces.

Other researchers have described the amygdala's neuronal response to faces before, but this dramatic selectivity -- which requires the face to be whole in order to elicit a response -- is a new insight.

"Our interpretation of this initially puzzling effect is that the brain cares about representing the entire face, and needs to be highly sensitive to anything wrong with the face, like a part missing," explains Ralph Adolphs, senior author on the study and Bren Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and professor of biology at Caltech. "This is probably an important mechanism to ensure that we do not mistake one person for another and to help us keep track of many individuals."

The team recorded brain-cell responses in human participants who were awaiting surgery for drug-resistant epileptic seizures. As part of the preparation for surgery, the patients had electrodes implanted in their medial temporal lobes, the area of the brain where the amygdala is located. By using special clinical electrodes that have very small wires inserted, the researchers were able to observe the firings of individual neurons as participants looked at images of whole faces and partially revealed faces. The voluntary participants provided the researchers with a unique and very rare opportunity to measure responses from single neurons through the implanted depth electrodes, says Rutishauser.

"This is really a dream collaboration for basic research scientists," he says. "At Caltech, we are very fortunate to have several nearby hospitals at which the neurosurgeons are interested in such collaborative medical research."

The team plans to continue their studies by looking at how the same neurons respond to emotional stimuli. This future work, combined with the present study results, could be highly valuable for understanding a variety of psychiatric diseases in which this region of the brain is thought to function abnormally, such as mood disorders and autism.

Engineers 'Cook' Promising New Heat-Harvesting Nanomaterials in Microwave Oven

Engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed new thermoelectric nanomaterials, pictured above, that could lead to techniques for better capturing and putting this waste heat to work. The key ingredients for making marble-sized pellets of the new material are aluminum and a common, everyday microwave oven. (Credit: Rensselaer/Ramanath)

Science Daily  — Waste heat is a byproduct of nearly all electrical devices and industrial processes, from driving a car to flying an aircraft or operating a power plant. Engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed new nanomaterials that could lead to techniques for better capturing and putting this waste heat to work. The key ingredients for making marble-sized pellets of the new material are aluminum and a common, everyday microwave oven.

However, a team of researchers led by Ganpati Ramanath, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer, in collaboration with the University of Wollongong, Australia, have demonstrated a new way to decrease zinc oxide's thermal conductivity without reducing its electrical conductivity. The innovation involves adding minute amounts of aluminum to zinc oxide, and processing the materials in a microwave oven. The process is adapted from a technique invented at Rensselaer by Ramanath, graduate student Rutvik Mehta, and Theo Borca-Tasciuc, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering (MANE). This work could open the door to new technologies for harvesting waste heat and creating highly energy efficient cars, aircraft, power plants, and other systems.

Harvesting electricity from waste heat requires a material that is good at conducting electricity but poor at conducting heat. One of the most promising candidates for this job is zinc oxide, a nontoxic, inexpensive material with a high melting point. While nanoengineering techniques exist for boosting the electrical conductivity of zinc oxide, the material's high thermal conductivity is a roadblock to its effectiveness in collecting and converting waste heat. Because thermal and electrical conductivity are related properties, it's very difficult to decrease one without also diminishing the other.

"Harvesting waste heat is a very attractive proposition, since we can convert the heat into electricity and use it to power a device -- like in a car or a jet -- that is creating the heat in the first place. This would lead to greater efficiency in nearly everything we do and, ultimately, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels," Ramanath said. "We are the first to demonstrate such favorable thermoelectric properties in bulk-sized high-temperature materials, and we feel that our discovery will pave the way to new power harvesting devices from waste heat."

Results of the study are detailed in a paper published recently by the journal Nano Letters.

To create the new nanomaterial, researchers added minute quantities of aluminum to shape-controlled zinc oxide nanocrystals, and heated them in a $40 microwave oven. Ramanath's team is able to produce several grams of the nanomaterial in a matter of few minutes, which is enough to make a device measuring a few centimeters long. The process is less expensive and more scalable than conventional methods and is environmentally friendly, Ramanath said. Unlike many nanomaterials that are fabricated directly onto a substrate or surface, this new microwave method can produce pellets of nanomaterials that can be applied to different surfaces. These attributes, together with low thermal conductivity and high electrical conductivity, are highly suitable for heat harvesting applications.

"Our discovery could be key to overcoming major fundamental challenges related to working with thermoelectric materials," said project collaborator Borca-Tasciuc. "Moreover, our process is amenable to scaling for large-scale production. It's really amazing that a few atoms of aluminum can conspire to give us thermoelectric properties we're interested in."

This work was a collaborative effort between Ramanath and Shi Xue Dou, a professor at the Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials at the University of Wollogong, Australia. Wollongong graduate student Priyanka Jood carried out the work together with Rensselaer graduate students Rutvik Mehta and Yanliang Zhang during Jood's one-year visit to Rensselaer. Co-authors of the paper are Richard W. Siegel, the Robert W. Hunt Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; along with professors Xiaolin Wang and Germanas Peleckis at the University of Wollongong.

This research is funded by support from IBM through the Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center; S3TEC, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) Office of Basic Energy Sciences; the Australian Research Council (ARC); and the University of Wollongong.

Scientists Release Most Accurate Simulation of the Universe to Date

The Bolshoi simulation reveals a cosmic web of dark matter that underlies the large-scale structure of the universe and, through its gravitational effects on ordinary matter, drives the formation of galaxies and galaxy clusters. The image is a slice of the entire simulation, 1 billion light-years across and about 30 million light-years thick. (Credit: Stefan Gottlober (AIP))

Science Daily  — The Bolshoi supercomputer simulation, the most accurate and detailed large cosmological simulation run to date, gives physicists and astronomers a powerful new tool for understanding such cosmic mysteries as galaxy formation, dark matter, and dark energy.

"In one sense, you might think the initial results are a little boring, because they basically show that our standard cosmological model works," said Joel Primack, distinguished professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "What's exciting is that we now have this highly accurate simulation that will provide the basis for lots of important new studies in the months and years to come."

The simulation traces the evolution of the large-scale structure of the universe, including the evolution and distribution of the dark matter halos in which galaxies coalesced and grew. Initial studies show good agreement between the simulation's predictions and astronomers' observations.

Primack and Anatoly Klypin, professor of astronomy at New Mexico State University, lead the team that produced the Bolshoi simulation. Klypin wrote the computer code for the simulation, which was run on the Pleiades supercomputer at NASA Ames Research Center. "These huge cosmological simulations are essential for interpreting the results of ongoing astronomical observations and for planning the new large surveys of the universe that are expected to help determine the nature of the mysterious dark energy," Klypin said.

Primack, who directs the University of California High-Performance Astrocomputing Center (UC-HIPACC), said the initial release of data from the Bolshoi simulation began in early September. "We've released a lot of the data so that other astrophysicists can start to use it," he said. "So far it's less than one percent of the actual output, because the total output is so huge, but there will be additional releases in the future."

The previous benchmark for large-scale cosmological simulations, known as the Millennium Run, has been the basis for some 400 papers since 2005. But the fundamental parameters used as the input for the Millennium Run are now known to be inaccurate. Produced by the Virgo Consortium of mostly European scientists, the Millennium simulation used cosmological parameters based on the first release of data from NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). WMAP provided a detailed map of subtle variations in the cosmic microwave background radiation, the primordial radiation left over from the Big Bang. But the initial WMAP1 parameters have been superseded by subsequent releases: WMAP5 (five-year results released in 2008) and WMAP7 (seven-year results released in 2010).

The Bolshoi simulation is based on WMAP5 parameters, which are consistent with the later WMAP7 results. "The WMAP1 cosmological parameters on which the Millennium simulation is based are now known to be wrong," Primack said. "Moreover, advances in supercomputer technology allow us to do a much better simulation with higher resolution by almost an order of magnitude. So I expect the Bolshoi simulation will have a big impact on the field."

The standard explanation for how the universe evolved after the Big Bang is known as the Lambda Cold Dark Matter model, and it is the theoretical basis for the Bolshoi simulation. According to this model, gravity acted initially on slight density fluctuations present shortly after the Big Bang to pull together the first clumps of dark matter. These grew into larger and larger clumps through the hierarchical merging of smaller progenitors. Although the nature of dark matter remains a mystery, it accounts for about 82 percent of the matter in the universe. As a result, the evolution of structure in the universe has been driven by the gravitational interactions of dark matter. The ordinary matter that forms stars and planets has fallen into the "gravitational wells" created by clumps of dark matter, giving rise to galaxies in the centers of dark matter halos.

A principal purpose of the Bolshoi simulation is to compute and model the evolution of dark matter halos. The characteristics of the halos and subhalos in the Bolshoi simulation are presented in a paper that has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal and is now available online. The authors are Klypin, NMSU graduate student Sebastian Trujillo-Gomez, and Primack.

A second paper, also accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal and available online, presents the abundance and properties of galaxies predicted by the Bolshoi simulation of dark matter. The authors are Klypin, Trujillo-Gomez, Primack, and UCSC postdoctoral researcher Aaron Romanowsky. A comparison of the Bolshoi predictions with galaxy observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey showed very good agreement, according to Primack.

The Bolshoi simulation focused on a representative section of the universe, computing the evolution of a cubic volume measuring about one billion light-years on a side and following the interactions of 8.6 billion particles of dark matter. It took 6 million CPU-hours to run the full computation on the Pleiades supercomputer, recently ranked as the seventh fastest supercomputer in the world.

A variant of the Bolshoi simulation, known as BigBolshoi or MultiDark, was run on the same supercomputer with the same number of particles, but this time in a volume 64 times larger. BigBolshoi was run to predict the properties and distribution of galaxy clusters and other very large structures in the universe, as well as to help with dark energy projects such as the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS).

Another variant, called MiniBolshoi, is currently being run on the Pleiades supercomputer. MiniBolshoi focuses on a smaller portion of the universe and provides even higher resolution than Bolshoi. The Bolshoi simulation and its two variants will be made publicly available to astrophysical researchers worldwide in phases via the MultiDark Database, hosted by the Potsdam Astrophysics Institute in Germany and supported by grants from Spain and Germany.

Primack, Klypin, and their collaborators are continuing to analyze the results of the Bolshoi simulation and submit papers for publication. Among their findings are results showing that the simulation correctly predicts the number of galaxies as bright as the Milky Way that have satellite galaxies as bright as the Milky Way's major satellites, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.

"A lot more papers are on the way," Primack said.

This research was funded by grants from NASA and the National Science Foundation.

Space Telescopes Reveal Secrets of Turbulent Black Hole

Turbulent winds of gas swirl around a black hole. Some of the gas is spiraling inward toward the black hole, but another part is blown away. (Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)

Science Daily  — Supermassive black holes at the hearts of active galaxies swallow large amounts of gas. During this feast they spill a lot of their 'food', which is discharged in turbulent outbursts. An international team of astronomers has revealed some striking features of such an outburst around a supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy. They found a very hot 'convertor' corona hovering above the black hole and cold gas 'bullets' in hotter diffuse gas, speeding outwards with velocities up to 700 km/s.

Unlike popular belief, not all the matter around a black hole is swallowed up. A disc of infalling gas forms around the black hole. On the journey inwards the gas and dust emit large amounts of X-ray and UV radiation. This radiation can be so strong that it diverts a part of the gas inflow. It causes winds flowing outward with velocities up to several hundreds of km/s. An international team of astronomers led by Dr. Jelle Kaastra from the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research took the opportunity to observe and map such an extreme environment around one of the brightest supermassive black holes known to us. This 'monster' black hole -- in the distant galaxy Markarian 509 -- has a mass 300 million times that of the Sun.

Convertor corona

The Markarian 509 black hole is surrounded by a disc of gas shining bright in ultraviolet light. This emission varies in a synchronised way with emissions observed at the low end of the X-ray band, some 100s of times higher in energy than visible light. "The only way to explain this is by having gas hotter than that in the disc, a so-called 'corona', hovering above the disc," Jelle Kaastra says. "This corona absorbs and reprocesses the ultraviolet light from the disc, energising it and converting it into X-ray light. It must have a temperature of a few million degrees. Using five space telescopes, which enabled us to observe the area in unprecedented detail, we actually discovered a very hot 'corona' of gas hovering above the disc. This discovery allows us to make sense of some of the observations of active galaxies that have been hard to explain so far."

Cold gas bullets

The X-ray spectrum obtained with the Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS) of the space telescope XMM-Newton is the best obtained so far of such a system. It reveals unprecedented details of its gaseous environment. For the first time it has been possible to show that the outflow consists of at least five distinct components with temperatures ranging between 20.000 to a million degrees. The superb ultraviolet spectrum obtained by the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph of the Hubble Space Telescope reveals that the coolest gas in the line of sight towards Markarian 509 has 14 different velocity components at various locations in the innermost parts of this galaxy. Thus far only seven velocity components were identified.

The combined X-ray and UV measurements demonstrate that most of the visible outflowing gas is blown off from a dusty gas torus surrounding the central region more than 15 light years away from the black hole. This outflow consists of dense, cold blobs or gas bullets embedded in hotter diffuse gas. "Even at a distance of 15 light years, the energy released near the black hole manages to blow off gas from the dusty torus that surrounds the disc of infalling gas," Kaastra says.

Signs of cosmic collision

Further outwards, the signatures of the interstellar gas of the host galaxy are seen. That gas is strongly ionised by the central X-ray source: atoms are stripped of some or most of their electrons when illuminated by the powerful flux of X-rays. Even further out, at hundred thousands of light years, the X-ray light shines through gas falling in towards Markarian 509 with speeds of 200 km/s. This gas may point at a collision with a smaller galaxy in the past, that may have triggered the activity of Markarian 509.

Space telescopes

Five large space telescopes were involved in this hundred days campaign that took place in late 2009. The heart of the campaign consisted of repeated visible, X-ray and gamma-ray observations with ESA's XMM-Newton and INTEGRAL satellites, which monitored Markarian 509 for six weeks. This was followed by long observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray satellite, using the Low Energy Transmission Grating, and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope using the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. Prior to these observations short snapshots to monitor the behaviour of the source at all wavelengths were taken with the Swift satellite.

The combined efforts of all these instruments and astronomers gave an unprecedented insight into the core of an active galaxy. Right in the middle of the campaign the source went into outburst. The physical changes due to this outburst could be followed over the electromagnetic spectrum from visible light to X-rays.

Papers

The international consortium responsible for this campaign consists of 26 astronomers from 21 institutes on 4 continents. The first results of this campaign will be published as a series of 7 papers in Astronomy and Astrophysics, titledMultiwavelength campaign on Mrk 509 (see below). More results are in preparation

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Science News: Inexpensive system can disinfect water

by Biomechanism

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., — A new technology using UV light from sunlight can disinfect drinking water for large parts of the world’s population easily and cheaply, U.S. researchers say.

A team of Purdue University researchers says the system, in which sunlight is captured by a parabolic reflector and focused onto a UV-transparent pipe through which water flows continuously, could help the world’s 800 million people who lack safe drinking water.

“We’ve been working on UV disinfection for about 20 years,” Ernest R. Blatchley III, a professor of civil engineering, said in a Purdue release Thursday. “All of our work up until a couple years ago dealt with UV systems based on an artificial UV source. What we are working on more recently is using ultraviolet radiation from the sun.”

The researchers say there were motivated to develop a practical, inexpensive water-treatment technology for developing nations.

“The water available for people to drink in many developing countries hasn’t been treated to remove contaminants, including pathogenic microorganisms,” Blatchley said. “As a result, thousands of children die daily from diarrhea and its consequences, including dehydration.

“Half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by people who are sickened by the water they drink.”

The researchers say their system, costing less than $100 for materials, was able to inactive E. coli bacteria and that improvements should prove effective against other deadly pathogens.

Health News: ‘Magic mushrooms’ may change personality

by Biomechanism


BALTIMORE, — One high dose of the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms” may make a measurable — and possibly permanent — personality change, U.S. researchers say.

The study, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, found a single high dose of the hallucinogen psilocybin found in magic mushrooms, lasted at least a year in nearly 60 percent of the 51 participants in the study.

Study leader Roland R. Griffiths, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said lasting change was found in the part of the personality known as openness — which includes traits related to imagination, aesthetics, feelings, abstract ideas and general broad-mindedness. Changes in these traits, measured on a widely used and scientifically validated personality inventory, were larger in magnitude than changes typically observed in healthy adults over decades of life experiences, Griffiths said.

Researchers say after age 30, personality doesn’t usually change significantly.

“Normally, if anything, openness tends to decrease as people get older,” Griffiths said in a statement.

Nearly all of the participants in the study considered themselves spiritually active, more than half had postgraduate degrees and the sessions with the otherwise illegal hallucinogen were closely monitored and volunteers were considered to be psychologically healthy, the researchers said.

“We don’t know whether the findings can be generalized to the larger population,” Griffiths said.

However, Griffiths noted some study participants reported strong fear or anxiety for a portion of their daylong psilocybin sessions. Although none reported any lingering harmful effects, if hallucinogens are used in less well-supervised settings, the possible fear or anxiety responses could lead to harmful behaviors.

Scientists discover ‘fickle’ DNA changes in brain

Biomechanism


Johns Hopkins scientists investigating chemical modifications across the genomes of adult mice have discovered that DNA modifications in non-dividing brain cells, thought to be inherently stable, instead underwent large-scale dynamic changes as a result of stimulated brain activity.

Their report, in the October issue of Nature Neuroscience, has major implications for treating psychiatric diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and for better understanding learning, memory and mood regulation.

Specifically, the researchers, who include a husband-and-wife team, found evidence of an epigenetic change called demethylation — the loss of a methyl group from specific locations — in the non-dividing brain cells’ DNA, challenging the scientific dogma that even if the DNA in non-dividing adult neurons changes on occasion from methylated to demethylated state, it does so very infrequently.

“We provide definitive evidence suggesting that DNA demethylation happens in non-dividing neurons, and it happens on a large scale,” says Hongjun Song, Ph.D., professor of neurology and neuroscience and director of the Stem Cell Program in the Institute for Cell Engineering of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Scientists have previously underestimated how important this epigenetic mechanism can be in the adult brain, and the scope of change is dramatic.”

DNA comprises the fixed chemical building blocks of each person or animal’s genome, but the addition or removal of a methyl group at the specific location chemically alters DNA and regulates gene expression, enabling cells with the same genetic code to acquire and activate separate functions.

In previously published work, the same Hopkins researchers reported that electrical brain stimulation, such as that used in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for patients with drug resistant depression, resulted in increased brain cell growth in mice, due likely to changes in DNA methylation status.

This time, they again used electric shock to stimulate the brains of live mice. A few hours after administering the brain stimulation, the scientists analyzed two million of the same type of neurons from the brains of stimulated mice, focusing on what happens to one building block of DNA — cytosine — at 219,991 sites. These sites represented about one percent of all cytosines in the whole mouse genomes.

In collaboration with genomic biologist Yuan Gao, now at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development, the scientists used the latest DNA sequencing technology and compared neurons in mice with or without brain stimulation. About 1.4 percent of the cytosines measured showed rapid active demethylation or became newly methylated.

“It was mind-boggling to see that so many methylation sites — thousands of sites — had changed in status as a result of brain activity ,” Song says. “We used to think that the brain’s epigenetic DNA methylation landscape was as stable as mountains and more recently realized that maybe it was a bit more subject to change, perhaps like trees occasionally bent in a storm. But now we show it is most of all like a river that reacts to storms of activity by moving and changing fast.”

The majority of the sites where the methylation status of the cytosine changed as a result of the brain activity were not in the expected areas of the genome that are traditionally believed to control gene expression, Song notes. Rather, they were in regions where cytosines are low in density, in genomic regions where the function of DNA methylation is not well understood.

Because DNA demethylation can occur passively during cell division, the scientists targeted radiation to the sections of mouse brains they were studying, permanently preventing passive cell division, and still found evidence of DNA demethylation. This confirms, they say, that the DNA methylation changes they measured occurred independently of cell division.

“Our finding opens up new opportunities to figure out if these epigenetic modifications are potential drug targets for treating depression and promote regeneration, for instance,” says Guo-li Ming, M.D., Ph.D., professor of neurology and neuroscience.

SHIRDI SAI BABA.

Look At This

“Sometimes mother Yashoda and her gopi friends would tell Krishna, ‘Bring this article’ or ‘Bring that article.’ Sometimes they would order Him to bring a wooden plank, wooden shoes or a wooden measuring pot, and Krishna, when thus ordered by the mothers, would try to bring them. Sometimes, however, as if unable to raise these things, He would touch them and stand there. Just to invite the pleasure of His relatives, He would strike His body with His arms to show that He had sufficient strength.” (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 10.11.8) Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is worshiped in so many different ways, as there is both direct and indirect worship. When the conditioned soul is deluded by ignorance of his constitutional position, the meaning of life, his place relative to other living entities and objects, and how the repeating cycle of creation and destruction operates, indirect worship will take place. The vile hatred shown towards the religiously inclined, the vehement denial of the existence of God, the dogmatic insistence couched in the shelter of scientific evidence relating to evolution, and even the willful neglect of adherence to religious principles are all examples of indirect worship. Krishna, or God, is the supreme father, so how can anyone not be interacting with part of His creation at every second? In direct worship, however, the transcendental tastes are present; hence the pleasure that everyone seeks at every second of their existence is found at the highest level. Shri Krishna is intimately aware of these tastes and how they can be produced. Therefore, for the sincerest souls He takes the impetus to create as many unique situations as possible where the transcendental taste can be relished through personal interaction. Can there be impersonal interaction with God? Yes, and it is another type of indirect worship. There is an intermediary stage where one understands that they are not capable of creating a sun, maintaining inconceivably large land masses and holding them in the air, and controlling the weather, but at the same time they don’t know who actually does maintain these things. Therefore at best they can worship an impersonal feature of the Lord, a sort of light of Truth. This method of worship is still superior to the indirect worship that takes place with those who completely deny the existence of a creator. Big bangs destroy; they don’t create. No one can take a series of chemicals and create life or even have a species evolve. Such theories are based only on outward perception, seeing visible outcomes and then trying to explain them with the paltry knowledgebase available to the human being. How can we make this assertion with confidence? Just imagine if we could absorb every single experience belonging to every single person who ever existed into our brain. Would we then have perfect knowledge? We can find the answer from our own personal experience. How many people do we see that are much older than we are and yet they don’t have anything intelligent to share with us? They make mistake after mistake, find perpetual misery and angst, all the while not progressing towards any favorable condition. People older than us have had more experiences, i.e. they have fed more information into the computer that is the brain. But more information doesn’t always mean that the mind will know how to process what it is collecting. Through intoxication, gambling, meat eating, illicit sex and the feverish pursuit to secure sense gratification, the mind casts aside good judgment in favor of animal instincts. The human being may look down on the animals for their lack of intelligence, but when the same behavior is followed by the seemingly more intelligent human, the deficiency is ignored. Even if we could collect knowledge of every experience, we’d have no way of creating something like the sun. It is just there. We know some of its properties, but we have no idea how to create it. Since we can’t even create a miniature version of the sun, what do we really know about the universe? Mind you, to create a replica of the sun, you’d have to make an object that remains in place, gives off heat and light, and does not require any maintenance whatsoever. This means that this miniature sun cannot have an external fuel source. This paradoxical combination of properties is impossible to create, yet man somehow thinks he can control the weather or evolve the species. The mental pursuits to try to supplant God’s authority are also a type of indirect worship. To better understand how this operates, let’s say that we had young children and they constantly played with the toys that we bought them. After playing and playing, they might generate their own theories as to where the toys came from and how to find happiness in their environment. There is no direct worship of the parents, who are the suppliers in this case, but the playing field still could never be created without the intervention of the superior entities, the parents. Just through their play the children perform some type of worship of their superiors, but there is no transcendental taste; there is no personal interaction. The behavior of atheists and those who ignore God’s influence is similar to the children in this regard. If you take a young child to the store and they see that you pay for a specific item by swiping your credit card, the child may think that this is how to pay for things. Just take out your card and swipe. What that transaction actually represents is not accounted for. That the credit card company will send a bill later on asking for the amount of the purchased item to be paid is unknown to the child. Even if the parent pays with cash, the child has no concept of what it took to earn that money, where it came from. Similarly, the scientists going off of simple sense perception and the documented perceptions and theories of others have no idea where matter comes from and what its purpose is. Rather, they look only at the results and then try to manipulate them for their own benefit. Sadly, if they simply changed the beneficiary of their activity, they could find true happiness. The person who grants us these objects does not do so to punish. If everything around us is used for His favor, eternal felicity can be found. Moreover, the proper knowledgebase will be uncovered as well. There are often debates as to what constitutes intelligence, i.e. how do we tell if someone is smart. There is really no need for any disagreement in this area, as the proper assessment is very easy to make. An intelligent person is one who can best use their knowledge to further their specific purpose. If one person knows a lot about quantum physics and the laws of mathematics, what does their knowledge gain them if their aim in life is to raise children and have a happy family life? Their intelligence may get them a good job which provides a high salary, but if they don’t know how to properly treat their family members and how to oversee their dependents, how smart can they really be? In this respect, the most intelligent person is one who can use whatever they have around them to further life’s ultimate mission, that of becoming God conscious. Instead of creating theories denying the existence of God, if we simply do something sincerely in the right direction and show the Lord what we have done, the benefits are real and last beyond the present lifetime. A beloved child is one who interacts with their parents, almost annoying them in a sense. “Dad, look at this. I made this today. Mom, do you remember yesterday when I did that? Dad, green is my favorite color. Mom, look, I finished all my food.” These are seemingly meaningless accomplishments and statements, but to the parents they provide tremendous pleasure. They warm the heart. The direct worship is there, as the interaction is genuine, with not even a hint of a desire to deny the authority of the parents. Direct interaction with God involves similar statements, except that we tell the Lord how much we have remembered Him. This is best done by regularly chanting, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. We also show to the Lord that we have given up sinful behavior, that we try to think about Him as much as we can. These aren’t much in terms of accomplishments, but if the effort is sincere, the pleasure derived by the reservoir of pleasure is unmatched. Since He knows His creation and the tendencies of its inhabitants very well, when Krishna chooses to personally interact with the purest devotees, He assumes roles that He knows will evoke tremendous pleasure all around. This was quite evident during His childhood in Vrindavana. Can God have a childhood? Can the person who is unborn, undying and formless ever appear anywhere? God is formless, but not in the way that we’d think. He has spiritual attributes, features which aren’t limited in the way that ours are. Krishna has hands that He can use to accept food offerings. Krishna’s ears can hear everything in this world, even though we can’t visibly see His ears. If He chooses, Krishna can come to earth in a seemingly human form and delight the purest souls, who have no desire for material attachment or temporary gains. When He appeared on earth some five thousand years ago, Krishna spent His childhood years in Vrindavana. Mother Yashoda, who was actually Krishna’s foster mother, derived tremendous pleasure from having Krishna as her son. Sometimes she would ask Krishna to bring this item or that, to carry wooden shoes or a wooden measuring pot. With children, the simplest tasks can be performed with the greatest eagerness. The parents love to see this enthusiasm, as the most menial task performed with love gives them delight. The same God who is unattainable by mystic yoga, study of Vedanta, and steep penances and austerities was being asked to carry trivial items by Mother Yashoda. One can only imagine how happy she must have felt. Sometimes Krishna would not be able to lift these items. Rather than reveal His apparent weakness, Krishna would just stand by the item and pound His chest, to show that He did have enough strength. Who in Vrindavana could ever be unhappy with Mother Yashoda’s darling around to please their eyes? Krishna would hatch elaborate plots with His friends to steal the butter supply safely hidden away in the neighbors’ homes. The cowherd women, the gopis, would complain to Mother Yashoda, but then they would ask her not to punish Krishna. This means that they really liked the attention Krishna gave them. They liked seeing His beautiful, sweet smiling face, His divine vision that chases away any hint of pride that could ever exist in anyone. The cowherd women of Vrindavana were the most intelligent because they used whatever knowledge they had to interact with Krishna. Even though they didn’t know Krishna’s divinity, they got to directly worship the Supreme Lord. Not only did they derive pleasure from Shyamasundara’s association, but Krishna manipulated events in just the right way so that He could take great pleasure too. Whoever keeps that sweet vision of Krishna bringing objects to Mother Yashoda regularly in their mind will never have to repeat the cycle of birth and death again. Reincarnation is meant for those choosing indirect worship. The devotees following bhakti-yoga, devotional service, have their eyes well up with tears when they think of Shri Krishna’s kind mercy and His love for the inhabitants of Vrindavana. In Closing: God is worshiped in some way by everyone, Either direct or indirect, service there is some. Honor material nature to connect, With Lord’s inferior energy, from Him does it reflect. But theories in the world can never God touch, He is the smartest, knowledge He has much. The wise relish the transcendental taste, Comes from chanting and seeing God’s face. This was practice of Yashoda the mother, Loved her son Krishna like no other. Would order the Lord items to bring, Make Him dance from songs they would sing. It is that wonderful boy that we adore, Brings us taste of direct worship we crave more and more.

Paper battery offers future power

The black piece of paper can power a small light Flexible paper batteries could meet the energy demands of the next generation of gadgets, says a team of researchers. They have produced a sample slightly larger than a postage stamp that can store enough energy to illuminate a small light bulb. But the ambition is to produce reams of paper that could one day power a car. Professor Robert Linhardt, of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, said the paper battery was a glimpse into the future of power storage. The team behind the versatile paper, which stores energy like a conventional battery, says it can also double as a capacitor capable of releasing sudden energy bursts for high-power applications. Graphic: How a paper battery works While a conventional battery contains a number of separate components, the paper battery integrates all of the battery components in a single structure, making it more energy efficient. Integrated devices The research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). "Think of all the disadvantages of an old TV set with tubes," said Professor Linhardt, from the New York-based institute, who co-authored a report into the technology. "The warm up time, power loss, component malfunction; you don't get those problems with integrated devices. When you transfer power from one component to another you lose energy. But you lose less energy in an integrated device." You can implant a piece of paper in the body and blood would serve as an electrolyte Professor Robert Linhardt The battery contains carbon nanotubes, each about one millionth of a centimetre thick, which act as an electrode. The nanotubes are embedded in a sheet of paper soaked in ionic liquid electrolytes, which conduct the electricity. The flexible battery can function even if it is rolled up, folded or cut. Although the power output is currently modest, Professor Linhardt said that increasing the output should be easy. "If we stack 500 sheets together in a ream, that's 500 times the voltage. If we rip the paper in half we cut power by 50%. So we can control the power and voltage issue." Because the battery consists mainly of paper and carbon, it could be used to power pacemakers within the body where conventional batteries pose a toxic threat. "I wouldn't want the ionic liquid electrolytes in my body, but it works without them," said Professor Linhardt. "You can implant a piece of paper in the body and blood would serve as an electrolyte." But Professor Daniel Sperling at University of California, Davis, an expert on alternative power sources for transport, is unconvinced. 'More difficult' "Batteries and capacitors are being steadily improved, but electricity storage is much more difficult and expensive than liquid fuels and probably will be so forever," he said. "The world is not going to change as a result of this new invention any time soon." Professor Linhardt admitted that the new battery is still some way from the commercial market. "The devices we're making are only a few inches across. We would have to scale up to sheets of newspaper size to make it commercially viable," he said. But at that scale, the voltage could be large enough to power a car, he said. However, carbon nanotubes are very expensive, and batteries large enough to power a car are unlikely to be cost effective. "I'm a strong enthusiast of electric vehicles, but it is going to take time to bring the costs down," said Professor Sperling. But Professor Linhardt said integrated devices, like the paper battery, were the direction the world was moving. "They are ultimately easier to manufacture, more environmentally friendly and usable in a wide range of devices," he said. The ambition is to produce the paper battery using a newspaper-type roller printer. Electricity is the flow of electrical power or electrons 1. Batteries produce electrons through a chemical reaction between electrolyte and metal in the traditional battery. 2. Chemical reaction in the paper battery is between electrolyte and carbon nanotubes. 3. Electrons collect on the negative terminal of the battery and flow along a connected wire to the positive terminal 4. Electrons must flow from the negative to the positive terminal for the chemical reaction to continue. Further Readings At Stanford, nanotubes + ink + paper = instant battery Dip an ordinary piece of paper into ink infused with carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires, and it turns into a battery or supercapacitor. Crumple the piece of paper, and it still works. Stanford researcher Yi Cui sees many uses for this new way of storing electricity. BY JANELLE WEAVER Stanford scientists are harnessing nanotechnology to quickly produce ultra-lightweight, bendable batteries and supercapacitors in the form of everyday paper. Simply coating a sheet of paper with ink made of carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires makes a highly conductive storage device, said Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering. "Society really needs a low-cost, high-performance energy storage device, such as batteries and simple supercapacitors," he said. Like batteries, capacitors hold an electric charge, but for a shorter period of time. However, capacitors can store and discharge electricity much more rapidly than a battery. Cui's work is reported in the paper "Highly Conductive Paper for Energy Storage Devices," published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "These nanomaterials are special," Cui said. "They're a one-dimensional structure with very small diameters." The small diameter helps the nanomaterial ink stick strongly to the fibrous paper, making the battery and supercapacitor very durable. The paper supercapacitor may last through 40,000 charge-discharge cycles – at least an order of magnitude more than lithium batteries. The nanomaterials also make ideal conductors because they move electricity along much more efficiently than ordinary conductors, Cui said. L.A. Cicero Bing Hu, a post-doctoral fellow, prepares a small square of ordinary paper with an ink that will deposit nanotubes on the surface that can then be charged with energy to create a battery. Cui had previously created nanomaterial energy storage devices using plastics. His new research shows that a paper battery is more durable because the ink adheres more strongly to paper (answering the question, "Paper or plastic?"). What's more, you can crumple or fold the paper battery, or even soak it in acidic or basic solutions, and the performance does not degrade. "We just haven't tested what happens when you burn it," he said. The flexibility of paper allows for many clever applications. "If I want to paint my wall with a conducting energy storage device," Cui said, "I can use a brush." In his lab, he demonstrated the battery to a visitor by connecting it to an LED (light-emitting diode), which glowed brightly. A paper supercapacitor may be especially useful for applications like electric or hybrid cars, which depend on the quick transfer of electricity. The paper supercapacitor's high surface-to-volume ratio gives it an advantage. "This technology has potential to be commercialized within a short time," said Peidong Yang, professor of chemistry at the University of California-Berkeley. "I don't think it will be limited to just energy storage devices," he said. "This is potentially a very nice, low-cost, flexible electrode for any electrical device." Cui predicts the biggest impact may be in large-scale storage of electricity on the distribution grid. Excess electricity generated at night, for example, could be saved for peak-use periods during the day. Wind farms and solar energy systems also may require storage. "The most important part of this paper is how a simple thing in daily life – paper – can be used as a substrate to make functional conductive electrodes by a simple process," Yang said. "It's nanotechnology related to daily life, essentially." Cui's research team includes postdoctoral scholars Liangbing Hu and JangWook Choi, and graduate student Yuan Yang. Janelle Weaver is a science-writing intern at the Stanford News Service. Media Contact Dan Stober, Stanford News Service: (650) 721-6965, dstober@stanford.edu

பேப்பர் பற்றரிகள்: தொழில்நுட்பத்தின் அபிரிதமான வளர்ச்சி

சில காலங்களாக உலகம் அழிவுப் பாதையில் போய்க்கொண்டு இருந்தாலும் இப்பொழுது உலகம் சற்று திசை மாறி முன்னேற பாதைக்கு செல்வதாகத் தான் தோன்றுகிறது. பற்றரி பற்றி அனைவரும் அறிந்து இருப்போம். மின்சாரத்தை தேக்கி வைத்து தேவையான நேரங்களில் பயன்படுத்தும் வகையில் அமைந்து இருக்கும். இந்த பற்றரி பொதுவாக ஜின்க், மக்னீசியம், மெர்குரி போன்ற வேதிப் பொருட்களால் தான் இது உருவாகப்படுகின்றது. இது போன்ற பற்றரிகளால் சுற்றுசூழல் மிகவும் பாதிப்பு அடைகின்றது. இதை தடுக்கும் விதமாக சமீபத்தில் பேப்பர் பற்றரிகள் கண்டுபிடித்து இருக்கின்றார்கள். இதுவரை உலோகத்தை பயன்படுத்தாமல் பற்றரியை உருவாக்க முடியாது என்கிற நிலைமை இருந்தது. ஆனால் தற்போது முழுக்க முழுக்க பேப்பர் பற்றரியை உருவாக்கி விஞ்ஞானிகள் சாதனை படைத்துள்ளனர். இதனை ஸ்வீடனின் உப்சலா பல்கலைக்கழகத்தைச் சேர்ந்த விஞ்ஞானி திரு.மரியா ஸ்ட்ரோம் தான் கண்டுபிடித்து இருக்கின்றார். மேலும் இந்த பற்றரி சுற்றுச்சூழலுக்கு 100 சதவிகிதம் பாதுகாப்பானவை. இது வெறும் சுற்றுசூழலுக்கு தானா என்று கவலைப்படவேண்டாம். இந்த பற்றரியை மிகச் சுலபமாக உருவாக்கி விடலாம். ஏன் என்று சொன்னால் இது ஒரு கடல் வாழ் உயிரினமான க்ளாடோபோரா என்கிற ஒரு கடல் வாழ் அல்கேவினால் தான் இது உருவக்கப்பட்டு இருந்தது. மேலும் இது கடலில் உருவாவதால் விலையும் மிக மலிவானதாக தான் இருக்கும். இது பாலிமர் பற்றரி என்கிற வகையை சார்ந்ததாக இருக்கின்றது. ஆனால் இதுவரை இருக்கின்ற பற்றரிகளை விட இது 200 மடங்கு அதிக மின்சாரத்தை தேக்கி வைத்து கொள்ளக் கூடிய சக்தி இதற்கு இருக்கின்றது. இதில் ரீசார்ஜ் செய்து கொள்ளும் வசதி இருக்கின்றது. இதை மிகச் சுலபமாகவே சார்ஜ் செய்து விடலாம். இப்பொழுது பயன்பாட்டில் இருக்கின்ற லிதியம் பற்றரிகளை விட வேகமாக சார்ஜ் ஆகக் கூடிய தன்மை படைத்ததாக இருக்கின்றது. தற்பொழுது தொடக்க நிலையில் இருக்கும் இதனுடைய பயன்பாடுகள் கூடிய விரைவில் மக்களின் பயன்பாட்டிற்கு வந்து விடும் என்று இதனை உருவாக்கியவர் கூறுகின்றார்.

காலை பொழுது தான் மகிழ்ச்சியான நேரம்: ஆய்வில் தகவல்

உலக மக்களின் மகிழ்ச்சியான நேரம் எது? என்பது குறித்து அமெரிக்காவின் கார்னெல் பல்கலைக்கழக நிபுணர்கள் ஒரு ஆய்வு மேற்கொண்டனர். அதற்காக டுவிட்டர் இணையதளம் பயன்படுத்துபவர்களிடம் கருத்து கேட்கப்பட்டது. அதில் 84 நாடுகளை சேர்ந்த 24 லட்சம் பேர் கருத்து தெரிவித்து இருந்தனர். அவர்கள் 2 வருடங்களாக 50 கோடியே 90 லட்சம் கருத்துக்களை கூறி இருந்தனர். அவர்களில் பெரும்பாலானவர்கள் காலைப் பொழுதுதான் மகிழ்ச்சியான நேரம் என கருத்து தெரிவித்துள்ளனர். ஏனெனில் அப்போதுதான் மக்களின் அன்றாட பணி தொடங்குகிறது. அதே போன்று நள்ளிரவும் மகிழ்ச்சியான தருணம் என கூறியுள்ளனர். அதே வேளையும் நள்ளிரவுக்கு மேலே மிகவும் எரிச்சலான நேரம் தொடங்குவதாக தெரிவித்துள்ளனர். அப்போதுதான் பயம், கோபம், குற்ற உணர்வு, கடும் வெறுப்பு போன்றவை ஏற்படுவதும் ஆய்வில் தெரியவந்துள்ளது.

Click and Type: மைக்ரோசாப்ட் வேர்டின் புதிய வசதி

வேர்ட் தொகுப்பில் பொதுவாக இடது ஓரம் டைப் செய்யத் தொடங்குவோம். பின்னர் நம் விருப்பத்திற்கேற்ற வகையில் இதனைச் சீர் செய்திடுவோம். இடது ஓரம், வலது ஓரம், மத்தியில் என எப்படி வேண்டுமானாலும் வாக்கியங்கள் கொண்ட தொகுப்பினை அமைத்திடுவோம். ஆனால் டாகுமெண்ட் ஒன்றில் எந்த இடத்தில் வேண்டுமானாலும் கர்சரைக் கொண்டு சென்று நிறுத்தி அந்த இடத்திலிருந்து டைப் செய்யும் வசதியும் உண்டு என்பதனைப் பலர் அறியாமல் இருப்பீர்கள். கிளிக் அன்ட் டைப்(Click and Type) என்ற இந்த வசதி வேர்ட் 2000 முதல் தரப்பட்டுள்ளது. இந்த வசதி பிரிண்ட் லே அவுட் மற்றும் வெப் லே அவுட்(Print Layout view or Web Layout) ஆகிய வியூவில் டாகுமெண்ட்டைப் பயன்படுத்து கையில் கிடைக்கும். இந்த வசதியின்படி மவுஸ் கர்சரை நீங்கள் விரும்பும் இடத்திற்குக் கொண்டு சென்று இருமுறை கிளிக் செய்தால் கர்சர் அங்கு அமைக்கப்பட்டு டைப் செய்யப்படும் சொற்கள், வரிகள் அங்கிருந்து தொடங்கப்படும். இதன் மூலம் போர்மட்டிங் பணியினைச் சற்று வேகமாக மேற்கொள்ளலாம். இந்த வசதி நீங்கள் பயன்படுத்தும் வேர்ட் தொகுப்பில் இயக்கத்தில் உள்ளதா என்பதை எப்படி அறிந்து கொள்வது? டாகுமெண்ட்டில் மவுஸ் கர்சர் ஒரு(I) டி பீம் போலக் காட்சி அளிக்கும். அதாவது ஆங்கில “I” எழுத்தின் மேல் கீழாக சிறிய கோடு இருப்பது போலத் தோன்றும். இதன் அருகே வலது பக்கத்தில் சில படுக்கை வசத்திலான சிறிய கோடுகள் இருந்தால் இந்த வசதி உங்கள் வேர்டில் இயக்கத்தில் இருக்கிறது என்று அறிந்து கொள்ளலாம். இந்த கோடுகள் நீங்கள் எந்த இடத்திலும் வரிகளை இணைக்கலாம் என்று காட்டுகின்றன. இவ்வாறு வரிகளை நினைத்த இடத்தில் அமைக்கையில் அந்த வரிகள் எந்த வகையில் அமையும் என்பதை இந்த i பீம் அருகே உள்ள சிறிய கோடுகள் காட்டுகின்றன. இதில் நான்கு வகைகள் உள்ளன. அந்த படுக்கை வரிகள், i பீம் அருகே மேல் வலது புறமாக அமைந்திருந்தால் மவுஸை இருமுறை கிளிக் செய்து அமைக்கும் வரிகள் கொண்ட பாரா, இடது வாகாக அலைன் செய்து அமைக்கப்படும். அந்த வரிகள் மேல் வலது புறமாக அமைந்து முதல் படுக்கை வரியின் இடது புறம் ஒரு சிறிய அம்புக் குறி இருந்தால் நாம் அமைக்கும் வரிகள் கொண்ட பாராவின் முதல் வரி, அதற்கான பாரா இடைவெளியுடன் அமைக்கப்படும். இந்த வரிகள் i பீம் நேர் கீழாக இருந்தால் நாம் இருமுறை மவுஸ் கிளிக் செய்து அமைக்கும் வரிகள் கொண்ட பாரா நடுவாக அமையும். இதே வரிகள் i பீம் இடது மேல் புறமாக அமைக்கப்பட்டால்நாம் இருமுறை மவுஸ் கிளிக் செய்து அமைக்கும் வரிகள் கொண்ட பாரா, வலது பக்கம் அலைன் செய்யப்பட்டு அமையும். இங்கு ஒன்றை நாம் நினைவில் கொள்ள வேண்டும். இந்த வசதி அமைக்கப்படும் டாகுமெண்ட்டிற்கான வியூ, பிரிண்ட் லே அவுட் அல்லது வெப் லே அவுட் என்ற முறையில் இருந்தாலே இந்த வசதி கிடைக்கும். எனக்கு இந்த வசதி எல்லாம் வேண்டாம் என்று நினைப்பவரா நீங்கள். இதனை நீக்கும் வழியும் இங்கு உண்டு. நீங்கள் வேர்ட் 2000, 2002 அல்லது 2003 பயன்படுத்துபவராக இருந்தால் கீழே குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளபடி செயல்படவும். 1. Tools மெனுவில் இருந்து Options தேர்ந்தெடுக்கவும். வேர்ட் ஆப்ஷன்ஸ் டயலாக் பாக்ஸினைக் காட்டும். 2. இந்த டயலாக் பாக்ஸில் எடிட் டேபினைத் தேர்ந்தெடுக்கவும். 3. இங்கு Enable Click and Type என்ற செக் பாக்ஸ் கட்டத்தில் உள்ள டிக் அடையாளத்தினை எடுத்து விட்டால் இந்த வசதி இயக்கப்பட மாட்டாது. 4. பின்னர் OK கிளிக் செய்து வெளியேறவும். நீங்கள் வேர்ட் 2007 பயன்படுத்துபவராக இருந்தால், 1. Office பட்டனில் கிளிக் செய்திடவும். தொடர்ந்து Word Options என்பதில் கிளிக் செய்திடவும். இப்போது வேர்ட் Word Options டயலாக் பாக்ஸைக் காட்டும். 2. டயலாக் பாக்ஸின் இடப்பக்கத்தில், Advanced என்பதில் கிளிக் செய்திடவும். 3. டயலாக் பாக்ஸின் எடிட்டிங் பகுதியில் உள்ள Enable Click and Type என்ற செக் பாக்ஸில் உள்ள டிக் அடையாளத்தை எடுத்துவிடவும். 4. பின்னர் OK கிளிக் செய்து வெளியேறவும்.

பயர்பொக்சின் வேகத்தை அதிகரிப்பதற்கு

இன்றைய காலகட்டத்தில் பயர்பொக்ஸ் உலாவி பயன்படுத்தும் நபர்களின் எண்ணிக்கை அதிகரித்துக் கொண்டே வருகின்றது. தங்களுடைய உலாவியானது வேகமாக இயங்கி பார்க்க விரும்பும் தகவல்களை விரைவாகவும், நல்ல முறையிலும், சிறப்பாகவும் தரவிறக்கம் செய்திட வேண்டும் என எதிர்பார்ப்பு உண்டு. மற்ற பண்புகள் இல்லாவிட்டாலும் வேகமாக இயங்க வேண்டும் என்பது அனைவரின் எதிர்பார்ப்பாகவே இருக்கும். இதனை SpeedyFox என்ற மென்பொருள் தருகிறது. இது முதலில் பயர்பொக்ஸ் தொகுப்பை வேகமாக நம் சிஸ்டத்தில் இயக்கக் கொண்டு வருகிறது. பிரவுசிங் ஹிஸ்டரி மற்றும் குக்கிகளை வழக்கத்தைக் காட்டிலும் விரைவாகச் செயல்படுத்துகிறது. தரவிறக்க சுட்டி

மது குடிக்கும் பழக்கத்தை கட்டுப்படுத்தும் மாத்திரை கண்டுபிடிப்பு

உலகம் முழுவதும் மது போதைக்கு ஏராளமானவர்கள் அடிமைகளாக உள்ளனர். அவர்களை மது குடிப்பதில் இருந்து கட்டுப்படுத்த தற்போது புதிய மாத்திரையை விஞ்ஞானிகள் தயாரித்துள்ளனர். இந்த மாத்திரை சாப்பிட்டவுடன் மது குடித்தால் ஏற்படும் போதை உணர்வு முகத்தில் உண்டாகும். அதை தொடர்ந்து அதிக அளவு மது குடிப்பது கட்டுப்படுத்தப்படும். இந்த மாத்திரை சாப்பிடுவதால் வேறு எந்த பக்க விளைவு பாதிப்பு ஏற்படாது. இந்த மாத்திரைகள் முதலில் எலிகளுக்கு சோதனை நடத்தப்பட்டது. அது வெற்றிகரமாக முடிந்தது. எனவே அந்த மாத்திரைகளை போதை அடிமைகளாக இருக்கும் மனிதர்களுக்கும் பயன்படுத்த முடியும் என விஞ்ஞானிகள் கருதுகின்றனர். அந்த மாத்திரைகள் விரைவில் விற்பனைக்கு வரும் என எதிர்பார்க்கப்படுகிறது.

நீரிழிவு நோயை கட்டுப்படுத்தும் மூலிகைகள்

உலக மக்களிடையே நீரிழிவு நோய் அதிகரிப்பதற்கு காரணம் உணவு உண்ணும் முறையே. நகர வாழ்க்கையின் தாக்கத்தினாலும் போதிய உடற்பயிற்சியின்மையாலும் நீரிழிவு நோய் ஏற்படுகிறது. நீரிழிவு நோயை கட்டுபடுத்தும் மூலிகைகளை மருத்துவர்கள் தெரிவித்துள்ளனர். மஞ்சள்: கிருமி நாசினியாகவும், உடல் தேற்றியாகவும், ஜலதோஷம், காய்ச்சல் முதல் புற்று நோய் வரை அனைத்து நோய்களிலும் பயனளிப்பதாக நிரூபணம் செய்யப்பட்டுள்ள மஞ்சளானது நீரிழிவு நோயையும் கட்டுப்படுத்துகிறது. நெல்லிவற்றலுடன் சேர்ந்து வழங்கும் போது சர்க்கரை நோயில் அதிக பலன் அளிப்பதுடன் நீண்ட கால பின் விளைவுகளைத் தடுத்து சிறுநீரக செயலிழப்பு, அதிக ரத்தக் கொழுப்பு ஆகியவற்றையும் தடுக்கிறது. நாவல்: நாவலின் பட்டை, பழம், விதை ஆகிய மூன்றும் பாரம்பரியமாக சித்த மருத்துவத்தில் நீரிழிவுக்குப் பயன்படுத்தப்படுகின்றன. குறிப்பாக நாவல் விதை மற்றும் விதையின் மேல்தோல் ஆகியவை இன்சுலின் அளவை அதிகரிப்பதை நவீன ஆய்வுகள் உறுதி செய்துள்ளன. மேலும் சர்க்கரை நோயில் உண்டாகும் சிறுநீரக, கல்லீரல் மாற்றங்களை நாவல் விதை சரி செய்கிறது. பாகற்காய்: பாகல் இலை, காய், விதைகளில் தாவர இன்சுலின் என்ற புரதச் சத்து உள்ளது. இது இன்சலின் போல் செயல்படுவதாகவும், இன்சுலின் சார்ந்த மற்றும் இன்சுலின் சாராத இருவகை நோயர்களுக்கும் பயன்படுவதாகவும், கணையத்தில் செயல்பட்டு பீட்டா செல்களை உயிர்ப்பிப்பதாகவும் சோதனையில் கண்டறியப்பட்டுள்ளது. பாகற்காயானது ரத்தத்தில் சர்க்கரை அளவை 50% வரை குறைக்கிறது. இது சர்க்கரை விழித்திரை நோயைத் தடுக்கிறது. நரம்புகளின் பாதிப்பையும் சரி செய்கிறது. சர்க்கரையிலிருந்து கொழுப்பு உண்டாவதை அதிகரிப்பதாகவும், கொழுப்பில் இருந்து சர்க்கரை உருவாகி ரத்தத்தில் கலப்பதைக் குறைக்கிறது. வெந்தயம்: வெந்தையத்தில் காணப்படும் ட்ரைகோனெல்லின் அதிகரித்த ரத்த சர்க்கரை அளவைக் குறைப்பதோடு, கொலஸ்டிராலையும் 25% அளவு குறைக்கிறது. எனவே மாரடைப்பு ஏற்படாமல் காக்கிறது. குடலில் சர்க்கரை ஊறிஞ்சப்படும் வேகத்தைக் குறைக்கிறது. சர்க்கரைக் கொல்லி மூலிகைகள்: மேலும் வேம்பு, வேங்கை, கொன்றை, மருது, கறிவேப்பிலை, கடுகு ரோகிணி ஆகிய மூலிகைகளும் சர்க்கரை நோயில் பலன் அளிப்பதை தற்கால ஆய்வுகள் உறுதி செய்கின்றன. இத்தகைய சிறப்புகள் உடைய மூலிகைகளைக் கொண்டு தயாரிக்கப்படும் வில்வம் மாத்திரை, சீந்தில் மாத்திரை, கடலழிஞ்சில் மாத்திரை, நாவல்மாத்திரை, நீரிழிவு சூரணம், ஆவாரை, குடிநீர், திரிபலா கற்பம், சிறுகுறிஞ்சான் சூரணம் போன்ற பல மருந்துகளில் ஏற்ற மருந்துகளை மருத்துவரின் ஆலோசனையின்படி எடுத்து வரலாம். மூலிகை மருந்துகள், உணவுச் சீரமைப்பு, தக்க உடற்பயிற்சி ஆகிய மும்மூர்த்திகள் உதவியுடன் சர்க்கரைநோயை வெல்ல நிச்சயம் முடியும்

உடலில் சர்க்கரையின் அளவை அதிகரிக்கும் தூக்கமின்மை

மனிதர்களுடைய தினசரிச் செயல்களில் நித்திரை மிக முக்கிய இடத்தை பெறுகிறது. தினமும் குறிப்பிட்ட நேரத்துக்கு நித்திரை கொண்டு ஓய்வெடுக்காமல் இருந்தால் மறுநாள் மனிதனால் ஒழுங்காக வேலை செய்ய முடியாது. நாள் முழுவதும் உழைக்கிற நம்முடைய உடல் உறுப்புகள் ஓய்வெடுக்கத் தான் இந்தத் தூக்கம் அவசியமாகிறது. எனவே ஒவ்வொருவருக்கும் நித்திரை கொள்வது மிக முக்கியமானது. சாப்பிடாமல் கூட சில நாட்களுக்கு உயிரோடு இருந்து விடலாம். ஆனால் நித்திரை கொள்ளாது விழித்திருக்க முடியாது. ஒருவேளை நம்மால் நித்திரை கொள்ள முடியலை என்றால் என்ன நடக்கும்? சில நாட்களுக்கு மனிதன் நித்திரை கொள்ளாமல் இருந்தால் மனித இரத்தத்தில் இருக்கும் வெள்ளை அணுக்களின் எண்ணிக்கை குறைவடைந்து நோய் எதிர்ப்புத் தன்மையும் குறையும். தசைகளின் வலிமை குறையும். இரத்தத்தில் சர்க்கரையின் அளவு கட்டுப்பாட்டில் இருக்காது. உடல் வெப்பநிலை மாறுபடும். இதுமாதிரி உடலுக்குச் சிக்கலை தூக்கப் பிரச்சினை ஏற்படுத்தும். உள்ளத்துக்கும் சிக்கலை ஏற்படுத்தும். நித்திரை கொள்ளாது இருப்பதனால் இரத்தத்தில் இருக்கும் மன அழுத்தத்துக்கு காரணமான கார்ட்டிசோல் என்கிற ரசாயனத்தின் அளவு கூடுது. ஞாபகசக்தி குறைவு, வேலைகளில் தவறுகள் போன்ற பல்வேறு பிரச்சினைகள் ஏற்படும். உடலையும், மனதையும் ஒருசேர பாதிக்கிற ஆற்றல் தூக்கமின்மைக்கு உண்டு. எனவே தினமும் குறிப்பிட்ட நேரத்துக்கு தூங்கி ஓய்வு எடுத்துக் கொள்ளுங்கள்.

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Universe bound by cosmic thread

The Australian National University

"The filament of star clusters and small galaxies around the Milky Way is like the umbilical cord that fed our Galaxy during its youth.” Astronomers at The Australian National University have found evidence for the textile that forms the fabric of the Universe. In findings published in the October Astrophysical Journal, the researchers discovered proof of a vast filament of material that connects our Milky Way galaxy to nearby clusters of galaxies, which are similarly interconnected to the rest of the Universe. The team included Dr Stefan Keller, Dr Dougal Mackey and Professor Gary Da Costa from the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at ANU. “By examining the positions of ancient groupings of stars, called globular clusters, we found that the clusters form a narrow plane around the Milky Way rather than being scattered across the sky,” Dr Keller said. “Furthermore, the Milky Way’s entourage of small satellites are seen to inhabit the same plane. “What we have discovered is evidence for the cosmic thread that connects us to the vast expanse of the Universe. “The filament of star clusters and small galaxies around the Milky Way is like the umbilical cord that fed our Galaxy during its youth.” Dr Keller said there were two types of matter that made up the Universe – the dominant, enigmatic dark matter and ordinary matter in the form of galaxies, stars and planets. “A consequence of the Big Bang and the dominance of dark matter is that ordinary matter is driven, like foam on the crest of a wave, into vast interconnected sheets and filaments stretched over enormous cosmic voids – much like the structure of a kitchen sponge,” he said. “Unlike a sponge, however, gravity draws the material over these interconnecting filaments towards the largest lumps of matter, and our findings show that the globular clusters and satellite galaxies of the Milky Way trace this cosmic filament. “Globular clusters are systems of hundreds of thousands of ancient stars tightly packed in a ball. In our picture, most of these star clusters are the central cores of small galaxies that have been drawn along the filament by gravity. “Once these small galaxies got too close the Milky Way the majority of stars were stripped away and added to our galaxy, leaving only their cores. “It is thought that the Milky Way has grown to its current size by the consumption of hundreds of such smaller galaxies over cosmic time.” Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Photosynthesis ‘faster than thought’

CSIRO

A new insight into global photosynthesis, the chemical process governing how ocean and land plants absorb and release carbon dioxide, has been revealed in research that will assist scientists to more accurately assess future climate change. In a paper published in Nature, a team of US, Dutch and Australian scientists have estimated that the global rate of photosynthesis, the chemical process governing how ocean and land plants absorb and release CO2, occurs 25 per cent faster than previously thought. From analysing more than 30 years of data collected by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, including air samples collected and analysed by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology from the Cape Grim Air Pollution Monitoring Station, scientists have deduced the mean rate of photosynthesis over several decades and identified the El Nino-Southern Oscillation phenomenon as a regulator of the type of oxygen atoms found in CO2 from the far north to the south pole. "Our analysis suggests that current estimates of global primary production are too low and the refinements we propose represent a new benchmark for models to simulate carbon cycling through plants," says co-author Dr Colin Allison, an atmospheric chemist at CSIRO's Aspendale laboratories. The study, led by Dr Lisa Welp from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, California, traced the path of oxygen atoms in CO2 molecules, which tells researchers how long the CO2 has been in the atmosphere and how fast it had passed through plants. From this, they estimated that the global rate of photosynthesis is about 25 percent faster than previously thought. "It's difficult to measure the rate of photosynthesis for forests, let alone the entire globe. For a single leaf it’s straightforward, you just put it in an instrument chamber and measure the CO2 decreasing in the chamber air," said Dr Welp. "But you cannot do that for an entire forest. What we have done is to use a naturally occurring marker, an oxygen isotope, in atmospheric CO2 that allows us to track how often it ended up inside a plant leaf, and from oxygen isotopic CO2 data collected around the world we can estimate the mean global rate of photosynthesis over the last few decades." In other studies, analysis of water and oxygen components found in ocean sediments and ice cores have provided scientists with a 'big picture' insight into carbon cycling over millions of years, but the search for the finer details of exchanges or uptake through ocean algae and terrestrial plant leaves has been out of reach. The authors said that their new estimate of the rate of global photosynthesis will help guide other estimates of plant activity, such as the capacity of forests and crops to grow and fix carbon, and help re-define how scientists measure and model the cycling of CO2 between the atmosphere and plants on land and in the ocean. Dr Allison said understanding the exchange of gases, including CO2 and water vapour, in the biosphere – oceans, land and atmosphere – is especially significant to climate science, and to policymakers, because of its relevance to global management of carbon emissions. "Quantifying this global production, centred on the exchange of growth-promoting CO2 and water vapour, has been historically difficult because there are no direct measurements at scales greater than leaf levels. "Inferences drawn from atmospheric measurements provide an estimate of ecosystem exchanges and satellite-based observations can be used to estimate overall primary production, but as a result of this new research, we have re-defined the rate of biospheric carbon exchange between atmosphere, land and ocean. "These results can be used to validate the biospheric components included in carbon cycle models and, although still tentative, may be useful in predicting future climate change," Dr Allison said. CSIRO's Dr Roger Francey was a co-author on the project, led by Scripps' Drs Welp and Ralph Keeling. Other study co-authors are Harro Meijer from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands; Alane Bollenbacher, Stephen Piper; Martin Wahlen from Scripps; and Kei Yoshimura from the University of Tokyo, Japan. Dr Allison said a critical element of the research was access to long data sets at multiple locations, such as Cape Grim, Mauna Loa and South Pole, extending back to 1977 when Cape Grim was established in Tasmania’s north-west, together with more recent samples from facilities such as Christmas Island, Samoa, California and Alaska. The Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station provides vital information about changes to the atmospheric composition of the Southern Hemisphere. The Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station, funded and managed by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, detects atmospheric changes as part of a scientific research program jointly supervised by CSIRO's Marine and Atmospheric Research Division and the Bureau. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Study reveals world of fat cell

Garvan Institute

The dysfunction of fat cells is one factor that leads to Type 2 diabetes. For the first time, Australian scientists have detailed the proteins, or functional molecules, inside and around the ‘plasma membrane’ of a fat cell, the permeable barrier between the cell’s inner workings and the rest of the body. Mapping a healthy fat cell at a basal level, or in a ‘pure’ state unaffected by its environment, allows us to understand exactly how it responds when exposed to hormones and other substances that blood carries around the body. Why a fat cell? Because it plays a central role in metabolism, and its dysfunction is one of the factors that leads to the complex lifestyle-related illness we call Type 2 diabetes. Professor David James, Leader of the Diabetes Program at Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research, along with Drs Matthew Prior and Mark Larance from his lab, focused particularly on how fat cells respond to insulin, the hormone that facilitates movement of fats and sugars from the blood to the cell interior, where they can be burned for energy. When a fat cell is exposed to insulin, armies of proteins spring into action. Receptor proteins on the cell surface send signals into the cell, forcing a chain of events. Glucose transport proteins speed along intracellular tramways towards the cell surface where they can pump glucose into the cell; motor proteins help push them so that they glide easily to the surface. Pore-opening proteins allow entry of nutrients, as well as ‘ions’, charged molecules that bring about important biochemical changes in the cell, such as a rise in pH levels. All this activity takes place within seconds – thousands of identical reactions within millions of fat cells. The complexity is almost unimaginable. For that reason, James, Prior and Larance used a sophisticated mass spectrometer, along with mathematical analysis, to allow them to glimpse what the eye cannot see – even with the most powerful electron microscopes. Their findings, which took around two years to compile and analyse, are now published online in the Journal of Proteome Research. In addition to the descriptive analysis, the research team has uploaded its data to an online repository, available to all scientists in the field. “This is very novel - a detailed study of the plasma membrane has not been done on any cell, let alone a fat cell,” said Dr Matthew Prior. “Proteins carry out the work of the cell, and their precise location tells us a lot about what they do. This study highlights the proteins that are either embedded within, or have a strong association with, the plasma membrane. It reveals aspects of function, which in some cases was a mystery until now.” “We isolated cells and brought them to basal level – so we could work out the proteome of the cell surface in the absence of stimulation.” “By then looking at the cell surface in the presence of insulin, we could see which proteins changed. Some proteins moved away from the cell surface, while other proteins moved towards it. A good example is the glucose transporter GLUT 4 – which in response to insulin moves to the cell surface to facilitate the entry of glucose into the cell.” “GLUT 4 was our positive control – as we already know that it’s regulated by insulin. As well as seeing a rise in GLUT 4 levels, we also saw a number of other proteins, not previously known to be insulin-responsive, move to the cell surface.” “It’s already known that when you put insulin into a cell, the pH goes up. One of the abundant proteins we identified is involved with intracellular pH.” “Metabolism of food – facilitated by insulin – generates lactic acid and other acidic metabolites. Because of this, we surmise that insulin increases the cell’s pH as a way of buffering it against acidity.” “In all, there were around 10 proteins that robustly changed with insulin exposure.” Most importantly, the study gives the science community the fat cell fingerprint, the receptors on the surface of a fat cell being very different from those found on a muscle cell or a bone cell. This kind of cellular specificity is important in the development of new drug targets, the best of which are cell surface proteins. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

How to cut suicide risks

The University of Auckland

Problem-solving therapy may help people who attempt suicide or self-harm. Image: hidesy/iStockphoto Problem-solving therapy may help people who attempt suicide or self-harm according to a study by University of Auckland researchers published in the British Journal of Psychiatry this month. The study is the world’s largest trial assessing the efficacy of problem-solving therapy for people who presented to hospital following attempted suicide or an intentional self-harm incident. It showed that patients who received problem-solving therapy were less hopeless, less depressed and had fewer suicidal thoughts than those who did not receive the treatment. The randomised controlled trial, funded by ACC, looked at 1094 people who presented to emergency departments between September 2005 and June 2008 at four district health boards (DHBs) in New Zealand. Findings showed that all people who received problem-solving therapy reported greater improvements in depression, hopelessness, suicidal thinking and problem-solving skills than people who received usual care alone. (Usual care following self-harm varies and may involve referral to multidisciplinary teams for psychiatric or psychological intervention, referral to mental health crisis teams, recommendations for engagement with alcohol and drug treatment centres or other health and non-health services.) Although problem-solving therapy did not lead to a lower rates of repeat self-harm incidences for all people, for those who had a previous history of attempted suicide or self harm (around 40 per cent of the group) the therapy significantly lowered their risk of presenting to hospital again with self-harm over the following year. Lead investigator Associate Professor in Psychological Medicine Dr Simon Hatcher says:“Self-harm is common and those admitted to hospital because of this are an easily identifiable high-risk group so there is an important opportunity for intervention, particularly in relation to suicide prevention. Despite this, there is no generally accepted evidence-based intervention. “The findings offer hope for those people who repeated self-harm that something can be done to help them, it shows that the burden of this problem on hospital emergency departments can be reduced and potentially it could help reduce New Zealand’s suicide rate.” The team at The University of Auckland is currently investigating whether other factors in conjunction with therapy, such as receiving regular postcards, would further improve patients’ wellbeing. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.