``` upside dOwn :: anti - gravity yOga ```

In the West a few years boom continues more and more people begin to engage in a new kind of fitness antigravity yoga. Fundamentally a new kind of yoga devised by a gymnast from the United States, Christopher Harrison, who offered to do upside down.

1. The essence of this method is that yoga asanas are performed in a suspended position of the body above the ground. It is achieved, thanks to a special belay wide ribbons attached to the ceiling.

2. According to the creator of the new method, a Broadway dancer and gymnast, Christopher Harrison, an unusual posture helps to straighten the joints tight and pull the body from the heel to the crown.

3. According to supporters of anti-gravity yoga, hanging above the ground, people are able to perform the asanas in yoga, which, in the traditional classroom make extremely difficult due to excessive tension in the body, especially in the back and neck.

4. According to research in the position of head down a person starts automatically self-updating mechanism.

5. The author of the new system claims that anti-gravity yoga can effectively balance the whole body and allow a lot of problems, including psychological nature.

6. In addition, anti-gravity yoga is very convenient for those people who have experienced trauma and back of hands, whose options are limited.

7. The lesson begins with warm-up and the first approaches in the hammock-insurance, which is stored within the body support in one or two feet to get used to a bit of 'weightlessness' . In the middle classes are more intense and complicated series of exercises: yoga poses from combining the dynamics, flexibility and strength. And the final part of the lesson restores breathing and muscle after exercise: specific asanas for relaxation and meditation can leave the room refreshed and full of energy.

8. It should be noted that anti-gravity yoga classes at home impossible. Need a special belay instruction sheet and an experienced instructor who has already mastered air yoga perfectly.

Water Management and Climate Change in Ancient Maya City

Science Daily  — Meticulous mapping and excavations at an ancient cave in the Yucatan Peninsula are revealing the vitality of the site to the ancient Maya -- for both religious ritual and human survival. The University of Cincinnati research will be a key topic of discussion on Feb. 24, at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers in New York.

Researcher Nicholas Dunning, a UC professor of geography, says the cave, located in the ancient ruins of the city of Xcoch, was used continuously from at least 800 BC until the 19th century, when it was still used for rituals. UC geography doctoral student Eric Weaver has led a team mapping Xcoch Cave, assisted by other experienced cavers including UC biology graduate students Beth Cortright and Jane Slater.The city is located in the elevated Puuc Region of the Yucatan in Mexico. The city -- featuring a great pyramid and other elaborate architecture -- was built above one of the few cave systems in the region that penetrates the permanent water table. Mapping and excavations of the ancient city revealed a network of cisterns and reservoirs that fed the community's water supply. The cave exploration has discovered hills of broken pottery and charred sacrifices, also indicating the cave was a key religious site that involved worship of the rain gods.

"This is in a region that has no surface water," says Dunning. "There are only a handful of caves that go deep enough to get to the permanent water table, so for anyplace that's bone dry for five months out of the year, this is a pretty special location."

Two large reservoirs are located in the middle of the city -- next to the monumental architecture -- and the smaller reservoirs and cisterns extend into the residential area and surrounding farm land.

Dunning says the area was by far the largest city in the region during the Preclassic Period around 800 BC to 100 AD, but adds that there are significant signs the city was abandoned between 100 AD and 300 AD, most likely due to drought.

"The Maya built a stairway to the cave entrance that we have to crawl in to enter and look for stalagmites -- cave formations," says Dunning. "Since this is a seasonal climate, the stalagmites act in the way that tree rings do -- recording the rainfall -- because they only grow during a part of the year when there's rain."

The field work is far from glamorous. Entering the deep cave involves a good deal of crawling through long, narrow tunnels. The summer expeditions also involve working in hot, humid temperatures that can rise as high as 105 degrees. "The oxygen content is so low, you can't even light a match," says Dunning.

"We found all kinds of broken pottery," Dunning says. "The Maya 'sacrificed' pottery by putting materials in it, then ritually killing it, as a means of releasing its essence, or to receive blessings from the rain gods with their sacrifices," Dunning says. Human and animal remains were also found, but researchers are still exploring whether those remains were sacrifices or burials.

Authors on the paper include Dunning, Xcoch project director Michael Smyth, an anthropological archaeologist for The Foundation for Americas Research, Eric Weaver and Philip van Beynen, professor of geography and environmental science at the University of South Florida.

Funding for the project was supported by a grant through the National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program awarded to The Foundation for Americas Research.

Faulty Fat Sensor Implicated in Obesity and Liver Disease

                                       Defects in a protein that functions as a dietary fat sensor may be a cause of obesity and liver disease. (Credit: © Luis Louro / Fotolia)                                                                                                                  

Science Daily — Defects in a protein that functions as a dietary fat sensor may be a cause of obesity and liver disease, according to a study published in the journal Nature, led by researchers at Imperial College London. The findings highlight a promising target for new drugs to treat obesity and metabolic disorders.

In the gut, when unsaturated fatty acids from food bind to GPR120, this stimulates the release of hormones that suppress appetite and stimulate the pancreas to secrete insulin. When fat cells sense high levels of fat in the blood through GPR120, it stimulates them to divide to produce more fat cells to store all the fat, reducing the risk of fatty liver and furring of the arteries. This mechanism could be an important pathway for bringing about some of the healthy effects of omega-3s.The protein GPR120 is found on the surface of cells in the gut, liver and fat tissue and allows cells to detect and respond to unsaturated fatty acids from the diet, especially the omega-3 fatty acids which are believed to have a beneficial impact on health. Scientists found that mice deficient in GPR120 were more prone to developing obesity and liver disease when fed a high-fat diet. They also found that people with a certain mutation in the gene encoding GPR120, which stops the protein from responding to omega-3 fatty acids, were significantly more likely to be obese.

When they were fed on a high-fat diet, mice that lacked GPR120 not only became obese but also had fatty livers, lower numbers of fat cells, and poor control of blood glucose. The researchers believe that mice that are deficient in GPR120 have difficulty storing excess fat in fat tissue. Instead, their bodies store fat in areas where it can cause health problems, like the liver, the muscles and in the walls of arteries. In humans, this pattern of obesity is associated with type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

The study involved scientists in the UK, France and Japan. It was led by Professor Philippe Froguel, from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London.

"Being overweight is not always unhealthy if you can make more fat cells to store fat," said Professor Froguel. "Some people seem to be unable to do this, and instead they deposit fat around their internal organs, which is very unhealthy. Our study suggests that in both mice and humans, defects in GPR120 combined with a high-fat diet greatly increase the risk of this unhealthy pattern of obesity. We think GPR120 could be a useful target for new drugs to treat obesity and liver diseases."

The researchers analysed the gene for GPR120 in 6,942 obese people and 7,654 controls to test whether differences in the code that carries instructions for making the protein contribute to obesity in humans. They found that one mutation that renders the protein dysfunctional increases a person's risk of obesity by 60 per cent. The researchers think this mutation mimics the effect of a bad diet lacking in unsaturated omega-3 fat.

Meet Plants' and Algae's Common Ancestor: Primitive Organisms Not Always So Simple, Researcher Says

A University of Arkansas biologist has created a sketch of what the first common ancestor of plants and algae may have looked like. (Credit: Courtesy Preston Huey and Science)                                                  

Science Daily  — A University of Arkansas biologist has created a sketch of what the first common ancestor of plants and algae may have looked like. He explains that primitive organisms are not always simple.

The image appears as part of a "Perspective" article in the Feb. 17 issue of Science.

Fred Spiegel, professor of biological sciences in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, suggests what microscopic parts would have been present in this common ancestor based on findings by Dana Price of Rutgers University and his colleagues, who examined the genome of a freshwater microscopic algae and determined that it showed that algae and plants are derived from one common ancestor. This ancestor formed from a merger between some protozoan-like host and cyanobacterium, a kind of bacteria that use photosynthesis to make energy, that "moved in" and became the chloroplast of this first alga. Price and his colleagues show that today's algae and plants have to be descended from this first alga, but they give no idea what it looked like.

"The work that Price and his group did nailed down what the relationships are" between this organism, the algae and plants, and all other eukaryotes, organisms that have a true nucleus in their cells, Spiegel said. "Once you know that, you can compare the structure of cells and characteristics you see in algae and plants with other eukaryotes and get a reasonable idea of what the original critter must have looked like."

For many years, scientists have speculated that the original ancestor of plants and algae must have originated from a protozoan-like organism and cyanobacteria. They theorized that at some point in the distant past the cyanobacteria became part of the other organism and created the first alga, which in turn created the opportunity for the growth into the biodiversity found in plants that we see today.

However, other scientists argued that the diversity and complexity of plants and algae suggest multiple events where different organisms merged. They pointed out that some members of the plant kingdom have simple structures and therefore must be more primitive than others.

Price and his colleagues' studied the genome of an obscure alga called Cyanophora. Their results strongly suggest that the first alga arose about a billion to a billion and a half years ago. This alga became the ancestor to the group of algae containing Cyanophora, plus the group of algae that includes the red seaweeds, plus the group that includes the green algae and the land plants. Together, these organisms form the super group called Plantae.

Based on this research, Spiegel has put forth a hypothetical snapshot of what the common ancestor of Plantae, the "first alga," might have looked like.

"The common ancestor of Plantae was an organism with very complex cells and a complex life cycle," Spiegel said. While some members of the super group Plantae may have less complex cells and life cycles, this does not mean they pre-date the common ancestor. "They're simpler because they lost parts, not because they originated that way."

Self Realization

“To know one's constitutional position means to know also the sublime position of the Lord. One who wrongly thinks that the living entity's position and the Lord's position are on the same level is to be understood to be in darkness and therefore unable to engage himself in the devotional service of the Lord.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Bhagavad-gita, 2.51 Purport) To fully understand a component object, one needs to know the purpose that it is meant to fulfill. If tied to a larger object, familiarity with that larger object is also required. In the absence of knowledge of the whole, the understanding of the component will be incomplete. For the infinitesimally small spiritual spark cased inside of a larger, yet ever-changing, material covering, to know oneself is the ultimate pursuit. Along the way, so many identifications are shed. To find the ultimate knowledge of the self, one must know to whom that self is intimately tied. Knowing the benefactor and its divine features is thus concomitant with self-realization. What does this all mean really? Are there people who only understand the identity of the spirit soul and ignore the presence of the superior soul? How is that even possible? Actually, depending on the path of spiritual life you accept, you can perpetually remain in the dark about the presence of a superior form of spirit. For instance, there is the route of mental speculation. This is fraught with peril, as the human brain is limited in its thinking capacity. Moreover, perception is the fuel for mental effort, and this perception is limited. Even if we have x-ray vision and the most expensive microscope to use for our observation, the surrounding environment plays an enormous role in the information gathering. When the sun goes down at night and there is full darkness, it is much more difficult to see our surroundings. The range element of a machine to help us in perception is a limit with respect to space, and there is also the more powerful limiting force known as time. Because of time’s influence, we have no way to perceive something as important as our emergence from the womb. The whole of human history must be accepted on authorized information presented by others, including their written-down sense perceptions. To add further complexity to the mix, the brain must be able to retain all the visuals it consumes and then know how to process them. As we have difficulty remembering what we ate for breakfast a few days ago, the sole reliance on sense perception is flawed from the very beginning. In the Vedic tradition, those interested in self-realization are taught the first instruction of aham brahmasmi, which means “I am Brahman.” Right away the Vedas slap the silly mental speculator upside the head by saying: “Abandon this pursuit of high knowledge on your own. Don’t even try to speculate. You are pure spirit, Brahman. Brahman is the truth. It is above the dualities of heat and cold, happiness and sadness, up and down, and birth and death. Brahman is your real identity. Follow authorized methods of instruction and practice to understand your position as Brahman.” With the self’s position identified in the beginning, the proper target is also set. Without a proper target, going through life is like running around as a chicken with its head cut off. A gun must be pointed at a proper target in order for its bullets to have the desired effect. The automobile must be given a destination for its ability to mean something. The student must know which assignments to complete and which tests to study for in order to reach the end of successful completion of the course. With the individual’s position as pure spirit identified, the authorized Vedic instruction applies rules and regulations aimed at allowing for that position to be realized. Someone may stand up in front of the classroom and teach me about the concepts of mathematics, but unless I can apply those principles myself, my knowledge of that information will be incomplete. Someone can tell me that two plus two equals four, but if the situation arises where I need to use that equation myself, I need to know the truth behind it. The practical application of Vedic principles comes through sacrifice, penance, austerity, and study of the Vedas, which delve into the difference between matter and spirit, the genesis of creation, and the constitutional position of the living entity. The material body is not the source of identity. This fact needs constant reiteration because in the absence of Vedic instruction, the living being automatically succumbs to the debilitating effect on consciousness brought on by material nature, which brings illusion at every second. I know that my ancestors have died, yet somehow I don’t think that the same fate awaits me. Even if I do acknowledge it, I try to forget about it, as why would I want to make myself depressed? “One should perform sacrifice, penance and charity with the word tat. The purpose of such transcendental activities is to get free from the material entanglement.”  (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 17.25) The Vedas are the true light of knowledge, so remaining in constant contact with them through the information presented by its most highly qualified teachers keeps the proper identity of the self intact. By following Vedic guidelines for abstention from material association, detachment from the constant ups and downs of life, and recitation of the sacred syllable om, which represents the Absolute Truth, one can become Brahman realized, or brahma-bhutah. Yet the living being’s identification with Brahman is only one part of the puzzle. The realization is not complete unless one learns where Brahman fits into the larger picture. As an example to see the distinction, let’s say that we’re studying an automobile. Through mental effort, we learn the ins and outs of the steering wheel. It is made of a certain compound, operates through the effort of the driver, and requires a certain type of fluid in order to rotate smoothly. But what if all we knew was the steering wheel? What if we ignored its position relative to the automobile? Obviously the steering wheel on its own isn’t of much value. It’s a circular object that may look nice and do neat stuff.  But only when placed inside of a functioning vehicle is the steering wheel really useful. So in this sense knowing about the car and its value is equally as important as knowing about a component piece. The individual sparks of Brahman are by nature blissful, eternal and knowledgeable. These features are inherited from Parabrahman, which can be considered the Supreme Self. On a tree we may have many small bananas and one very large one, but there isn’t an inherent relationship between the larger object and the smaller pieces. Different degrees of size and stature are there in virtually every field, but with Brahman and Parabrahman there is an ideal relationship. Brahman emanates from Parabrahman, and that link can never be broken; only forgotten. Parabrahman’s features are revealed to the spiritualist who follows the topmost Vedic discipline of bhagavata-dharma, which is also known as bhakti-yoga. Though Parabrahman is a separate entity, it resides within the individual body alongside the individual soul. Its presence is felt through following the instructions of the acharyas familiar with bhagavata-dharma. To be a qualified teacher in this discipline, one has to be practicing its principles. The primary activity of bhakti is the chanting of the holy names: “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. If we’re trying to learn about the features belonging to a superior collection of spirit, what is chanting a mantra over and over again going to do for us? Connection with Parabrahman doesn’t necessarily require sight perception. That may help, as seeing makes a believer out of a staunch doubter, but if that vision goes away the ability to connect does not. This reveals Parabrahman’s absolute position. Chanting the names of the Personality who Parabrahman represents is as good as seeing Him, because the name carries with it Parabrahman’s qualities, pastimes and forms. “My dear Krishna, O infallible and most beautiful one, any human being who happens to hear about Your transcendental form and pastimes immediately absorbs through his ears Your name, fame and qualities; thus all his material pangs subside, and he fixes Your form in his heart. Through such transcendental love for You, he sees You always within himself; and by this process all his desires become fulfilled. Similarly, I have heard of Your transcendental qualities. I may be shameless in expressing myself so directly, but You have captivated me and taken my heart.”  (Letter from Rukmini Devi to Lord Krishna, Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vol 1, Ch 51) One famous divine figure during her time on earth had never met Parabrahman in His original position as Shri Krishna, but since she had heard about Him, she knew that He was the only person she wanted to marry. The sound vibrations she took in describing Krishna’s features painted the mental picture within her mind, which allowed this most beautiful princess, Rukmini Devi, to fully surrender herself to Him. Though she wasn’t a transcendentalist consciously looking to understand the self, simply by harboring attraction for Krishna, from hearing about His features, she was intimately familiar with her own constitutional position. Krishna’s position is sublime. His name, which is assigned to Him by those who love Him, indicates that He is all-attractive. Brahman’s tremendous potency is meant for serving Parabrahman. That is the real purpose to self-realization. If I understand my constitutional position as pure spirit and know where I fit into the larger picture, I can follow activities that will bring the ultimate benefit. Therefore self-realization is meant to culminate in service to Krishna, which operates without motivation and without interruption when the sublime vision of the Lord is kept within the mind. Seeing Him for a second can bring bliss to the eyes, but once that vision dissipates, the eyes are left to look upon other things. In this way Krishna’s name is actually superior to Him, because it can be repeated over and over again, creating that same sublime vision within the mind at any time. “But those who fully worship the unmanifested, that which lies beyond the perception of the senses, the all-pervading, inconceivable, fixed, and immovable—the impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth-by controlling the various senses and being equally disposed to everyone, such persons, engaged in the welfare of all, at last achieve Me.”  (Lord Krishna, Bg. 12.3-4) What about those who never learn about Krishna but reach the state of brahma-bhutah? Shri Krishna addresses this issue in the Bhagavad-gita, His discourse on spirituality which has the essence of the Vedas in a format presentable to even those not fully immersed in self-realization. Understanding only the self while ignoring Parabrahman is akin to understanding the impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord. Through the impersonal understanding man can shun material nature and thus avoid the harmful attachments that develop over the course of a lifetime. This path is quite difficult to begin with, as without the bliss of Krishna’s association, adherence to dharma will be severely tested. Nevertheless, if the motivation is genuine, if the desire for self-realization is true, eventually the impersonalist will find Krishna. The bhagavata-dharma route is direct, as it identifies the living entity’s position as Brahman and servant of God simultaneously. With bhakti, Krishna can stay within the mind, bringing the sweetness of association. Brahma-bhutah relies on knowledge and renunciation, but even the most unintelligent person can bask in Krishna’s association if they are sincere in purpose. Hence they can find their constitutional position without knowing Brahman first. The bhakti route is easier to implement but much more difficult to accept, as the spirit soul has grown averse to divine love through its travels through many species in the wheel of the samsara-chakra, the cycle of birth and death. Nevertheless, those who are fortunate enough to understand Krishna’s position will never have to take birth again, reaching His transcendental abode at the end of life, gaining the opportunity to live in their original home. In Closing: Self-realization, pursuit of identity to know, But to higher being our existence we owe. To know self one must know Him as well, His beautiful form ignorance dispels. From bhakti know God without Him in front of you, Let mind worship image of sweet form of bluish hue. Rukmini loved Krishna though Him never having seen, Asked Him to rescue her, arrive at marriage scene. In bhakti for progress won’t have to wait, Through Lord’s help at end reach highest state.

Jobs in Gulf & Middle East

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Sri Lanka from Above

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Right choice, but not the intuitive one

When faced with a tough choice, we already have the cognitive tools we need to make the right decision, Daniel Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard, told his Law School audience. Credit: Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

To take a gratifying, low-paying job or a well-paid corporate position, to get married or play the field, to move across the country or stay put: The fact that most people face such choices at some point in their lives doesn’t make them any easier. No one knows the dilemma better than law students, who are poised to enter a competitive job market after staking years of study on their chosen field.

When faced with a tough choice, we already have the cognitive tools we need to make the right decision, Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard and host of the PBS series “This Emotional Life,” told a Harvard Law School (HLS) audience on Feb. 16. The hard part is overcoming the tricks our minds play on us that render rational decision-making nearly impossible.

Gilbert’s talk, titled “How To Do Precisely the Right Thing at All Possible Times,” was part of Living Well in the Law, a new program sponsored by the HLS Dean of Students Office that aims to help law students consider their personal and professional development beyond the fast track of summer associate positions and big-law job offers.

There is a relatively simple equation for figuring out the best course of action in any situation, Gilbert explained: What are the odds of a particular action getting you what you want, and how much do you value getting what you want? If you really want something, and you identify an action that will make it likely, then taking that action is a good move.

Unfortunately, Gilbert said, “these are also the two ways human beings screw up.”

First, he said, humans have a hard time estimating how likely we are to get what we want. “We know how to calculate odds [mathematically], but it’s not how we actually calculate odds,” he said.

We buy lottery tickets, because we “never see interviews with lottery losers.” If every one of the 170 million losing ticket holders were interviewed on television for 10 seconds apiece, we’d be having the image of losing drilled into our brains for 65 straight years, he said.

“When something’s easy to imagine, you think it’s more likely to happen,” he said.

For example, if asked to guess the number of annual deaths in the United States by firework accidents and storms versus asthma and drowning, most people will vastly overestimate the former and underestimate the latter. That’s because we don’t see headlines when someone dies of an asthma attack or drowns, Gilbert said. “It’s less available in your memory, but it is in fact more frequent.”

Then there’s the fact that we’re prone to irrational levels of optimism, a pattern that has been documented across all areas of life. Sports fans in every city believe their team has better-than-average odds of winning; the vast majority of people believe they’ll live to be 100.

A study of Harvard seniors, Gilbert gleefully reported, showed they on average believed they’d finish their theses within 28 to 48 days, but most likely within 33 — “a number virtually indistinguishable from their best-case scenario.” In reality, they complete their theses within 56 days on average.

Still, he said, calculating our odds of success is actually the easy part. “What’s really hard in life is knowing how much you’re going to value the thing you’re striving so hard to get,” he said.

When we consider buying a $2 cup of coffee at Starbucks, for example, we don’t compare the satisfaction of a morning caffeine jolt against the millions of other things we could purchase for $2. Rather, we compare the value of that cup of coffee against our own past experiences. If the same coffee only cost $1.50 yesterday, we might balk at paying $2 for it today.

“One of the problems with this bias, this tendency to pay attention to change, is that it’s hard to know if things really did change,” he said. “Whether things changed is often in the eye of the beholder.

“It turns out that every form of judgment works by comparison,” he said. “People shop by comparison.” Unfortunately, our comparisons are easily manipulated, and comparing one option with all other possible options is an impossible task.

Real estate companies, for example, show potential buyers “set-up properties,” rundown fixer-uppers that they actually own, to lower their clients’ expectations for houses that are actually for sale.

In his own lab, Gilbert’s research team had two groups of college students predict how much they would enjoy eating a bag of potato chips. The group that sat in a room with chocolates on display predicted they’d enjoy the chips less, while the second group — stuck in a room with the chips and a variety of canned meats — predicted much higher enjoyment of the salty snack.

But when the students rated their enjoyment of the chips while they were eating them, those differences disappeared. While their previous visual judgment was tainted by comparison, their judgment of the actual taste was not.

“The comparisons you make when you’re shopping are not the ones you’ll make after you’ve bought,” Gilbert said.

The human mind evolved to deal with different dilemmas than the ones we face today, Gilbert explained. Our ancestors weighed short-term consequences to ensure their survival, evolving a snap-judgment process that often serves us poorly when making long-term decisions such as buying a home, investing in the stock market, or making a cross-country move.

The brain “thinks like the old machine it is,” Gilbert said. “We are in some sense on a very ancient vessel, and we are sailing a very ancient sea.”

Still, he told his audience, we have the ability to overcome these evolutionary roadblocks to self-aware, smart decision-making, as long as we acknowledge our biases.

“We’ve been given that gift,” Gilbert said. “The question is, will we use it?”

Provided by Harvard University

This story is published courtesy of the Harvard Gazette, Harvard University's official newspaper. For additional university news, visitHarvard.edu.

"Right choice, but not the intuitive one." February 20th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-choice-intuitive.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

New transistor has one atom

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

“This is the first time anyone has shown control of a single atom in a substrate with this level of precise accuracy.” Image: fr73/iStockphoto In a remarkable feat of micro-engineering, UNSW physicists have created a working transistor consisting of a single atom placed precisely in a silicon crystal. The tiny electronic device, described today in apaper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, uses as its active component an individual phosphorus atom patterned between atomic-scale electrodes and electrostatic control gates. This unprecedented atomic accuracy may yield the elementary building block for a future quantum computer with unparalleled computational efficiency. Until now, single-atom transistors have been realised only by chance, where researchers either have had to search through many devices or tune multi-atom devices to isolate one that works. “But this device is perfect”, says Professor Michelle Simmons, group leader and director of the ARC Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at UNSW. “This is the first time anyone has shown control of a single atom in a substrate with this level of precise accuracy.” The microscopic device even has tiny visible markers etched onto its surface so researchers can connect metal contacts and apply a voltage, says research fellow and lead author Dr Martin Fuechsle from UNSW. “Our group has proved that it is really possible to position one phosphorus atom in a silicon environment - exactly as we need it - with near-atomic precision, and at the same time register gates,” he says.  The device is also remarkable, says Dr Fuechsle, because its electronic characteristics exactly match theoretical predictions undertaken with Professor Gerhard Klimeck’s group at Purdue University in the US and Professor Hollenberg’s group at the University of Melbourne, the joint authors on the paper. The UNSW team used a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) to see and manipulate atoms at the surface of the crystal inside an ultra-high vacuum chamber. Using a lithographic process, they patterned phosphorus atoms into functional devices on the crystal then covered them with a non-reactive layer of hydrogen. Hydrogen atoms were removed selectively in precisely defined regions with the super-fine metal tip of the STM. A controlled chemical reaction then incorporated phosphorus atoms into the silicon surface. Finally, the structure was encapsulated with a silicon layer and the device contacted electrically using an intricate system of alignment markers on the silicon chip to align metallic connects. The electronic properties of the device were in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions for a single phosphorus atom transistor.   It is predicted that transistors will reach the single-atom level by about 2020 to keep pace with Moore’s Law, which describes an ongoing trend in computer hardware that sees the number of chip components double every 18 months. This major advance has developed the technology to make this possible well ahead of schedule and gives valuable insights to manufacturers into how devices will behave once they reach the atomic limit, says Professor Simmons. Watch the video here. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

‘Infertile’ women need more time

THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

One-in-four women with a history of infertility can still end up having a baby without treatment, a new study from The University of Queensland (UQ) shows. The study led by Dr Danielle Herbert, from the School of Population Health and Centre for Clinical Research, reveals that women who have been clinically diagnosed as infertile after 12 months of unsuccessfully trying for a baby may actually just need longer to conceive. "Many women aged up to 36 years with a history of infertility, especially those who have already had a baby, can achieve spontaneous conception and live birth without using fertility treatment indicating they are sub-fertile rather than infertile," Dr Herbert said. The study shows one-in-four Australian women aged 28-36 years who reported a history of infertilityhad a baby without using fertility treatment, and a further one-in-four had a baby after undergoing fertility treatment, which included IVF or fertility hormones, such as Clomid. Half of those women who had not used treatment had already had a baby prior to reporting infertility. Dr Herbert said the national study, which appears in the journal Fertility and Sterility, offers a more complete picture of infertility in Australia compared to previous clinic-based studies. “The strength of this study is the inclusion of all women with a self-reported history of infertility,” she said. “That means that women who have experienced difficulty falling pregnant but not sought treatment are included, as well as women who do seek treatment but do not become pregnant.” The research is part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health which has followed more than 8,000 women since 1996. This latest data comes from surveys conducted in 2006 and 2009. For women who did have a baby, there was no difference in pregnancy complications - including stillbirths or premature births - between those who did and those who didn't use fertility treatment. Women who received fertility treatment were more likely to have twins. Dr Herbert said that while the study has its limitations – researchers do not know if women changed male partners during the study period – it provides important evidence that can help doctors decide when best to start patients on fertility treatment. “These findings are particularly encouraging for women aged up to 36 years who have previously had a baby, or been diagnosed with unexplained infertility – that is the woman is ovulating regularly and their partner is making good quality sperm - to persevere to conceive without treatment.” Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Exercise still ‘valuable’: study

THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

"Exercise is good for you whether you lose weight or not." Image: mediaphotos/iStockphoto In spite of recent media reports suggesting that exercise may not be useful in obesity management, overweight and obese people should not be discouraged from taking it up, according to a paper published today in theMedical Journal of Australia. Winthrop Professor Daniel Green from UWA's School of Sports Science, Exercise and Health said although treatments such as bariatric (weight loss) surgery were being promoted in some quarters, exercise was still a valuable part of the health equation for overweight and obese people. "Bariatric surgery has an important and evidence-based role in the treatment of severe obesity.  However, lack of attention to prevention, especially exercise, effectively condemns a large proportion of the 20 per cent of Australians who are already obese to disease progression and, ultimately, surgery," Professor Green said. "Exercise is good for you whether you lose weight or not, because it can help increase muscle mass, improve artery function and decrease the risks of heart attack, stroke and diabetes. "Recent studies suggest that obese people who develop some level of fitness have a lower cardiovascular disease and death risk than those who are lean but unfit.  Exercise is especially good at preventing diabetes in obese people, who are at higher risk of developing this disease." Professor Green said experts recommended comprehensive weight management programs should be available for obese patients and those with Type 2 diabetes, and that non-surgical options should be attempted first. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Vitamin C boosts tumour death

UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO

Giving brain cancer cells high dose vitamin C makes them much more susceptible to radiation therapy. Image: syolacan/iStockphoto Recent research by the University of Otago, Wellington has shown that giving brain cancer cells high dose vitamin C makes them much more susceptible to radiation therapy. The study, carried out in association with Wellington’s Malaghan Institute was recently published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine. Lead author Dr Patries Herst together with Dr Melanie McConnell investigated how combining high dose vitamin C with radiation affected survival of cancer cells isolated from glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain tumours, and compared this with the survival of normal cells. They found that high dose vitamin C by itself caused DNA damage and cell death which was much more pronounced when high dose vitamin C was given just prior to radiation. Herst says GBM patients have a poor prognosis because the aggressive GBM tumours are very resistant to radiation therapy. “We found that high dose vitamin C makes it easier to kill these GBM cells by radiation therapy”. She says there has long been debate about the use of high dose vitamin C in the treatment of cancer. High dose vitamin C specifically kills a range of cancer cells in the laboratory and in animal models. It produces aggressive free radicals in the tumour environment but not in the environment of healthy cells. The free radicals damage DNA, which kills the cells, but the high concentration necessary to kill cancer cells can only be achieved by intravenous injection. However, these promising findings have so far not been validated in clinical studies. “If carefully designed clinical trials show that combining high dose vitamin C with radiation therapy improves patient survival, there may be merit in combining both treatments for radiation-resistant cancers, such as glioblastoma multiforme,” says Dr Herst. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

How cholesterol gets shipped

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

Hrs plays a specific role in directing how and where low-density lipoproteins are deposited. Image: dlerick/iStockphoto A protein that directs traffic within human cells has been identified as playing a key role in the accumulation of so-called “bad” cholesterol, according to a new study. Little is known about how this bad cholesterol is transported inside a cell, notes Associate Professor Rob Yang, a member of a UNSW research team writing in the journal Cell Reports. “Cholesterol is carried around our bloodstream, packaged in particles called lipoproteins, Cholesterol from the low-density lipoproteins - also known as ‘bad’ cholesterol - enters our cells and deposits at different locations through a poorly-understood maze of transport routes,” says Professor Yang, and ARC Future Fellow in the UNSW School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences. The lead author on the paper was Postdoctoral Research Fellow Robin Du. Other authors were Abdulla Kazim and Associate Professor Andrew Brown. The team found that the protein – known as Hrs - plays a specific role in directing how and where low-density lipoproteins are deposited. The researchers showed in experiments that reducing the amount of Hrs causes cholesterol to accumulate in endosomes, a cellular compartment usually containing little cholesterol. “This discovery provides a better understanding of how cells handle cholesterol,” he says. “Misdirection of cholesterol will cause it to accumulate in the wrong places in a cell, resulting in disturbed cholesterol metabolism and eventual cell death. “This will in turn contribute to the development of heart disease, and a number of neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.” The team is now trying to identify other factors that may co-operate with Hrs to help direct cholesterol traffic, and in turn may point towards new therapeutic strategies against heart and neurodegenerative diseases. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.