Northwestern University researchers have discovered a drug that slows – and may even halt – the progression of Parkinson’s disease. The drug rejuvenates aging dopamine cells, whose death in the brain causes the symptoms of this devastating and widespread disease.

D. James Surmeier and his team of researchers have found that isradipine, a drug widely used for hypertension and stroke, restores stressed-out dopamine neurons to their vigorous younger selves.

An international study by researchers at Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute, the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands has identified a new genetic cause for Joubert syndrome (JS).

Joubert syndrome is an inherited condition that affects development of the cerebellum and brainstem, the structures in the brain that coordinate movements and regulate basic functions such as breathing, swallowing, heart rate and consciousness. The study confirms key information about the genetic changes that cause JS and cellular structures called cilia, conclusively placing JS in a class of recently identified ciliopathic conditions.

More than 26 million people worldwide were estimated to be living with Alzheimer’s disease in 2006, according to a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The researchers also concluded the global prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease will grow to more than 106 million by 2050. By that time, 43 percent of those with Alzheimer’s disease will need high-level care, equivalent to that of a nursing home.

We've all had the feeling we've been somewhere before or had a feeling we've previously had a conversation. It isn't magic or mysticism, the answer is in a set of neurons called your 'place cells.'

Researchers believe these 'place cells' fire to provide a sort of blueprint for any new space we encounter. The next time we see the space, those same neurons fire. Thus we know when we've been somewhere before and don't have to relearn our way around familiar turf. But similar spaces may activate overlapping neuronal blueprints, leaving room for confusion if the neurons are not fine-tuned. Thus happens deja vu.

Source: University of Bristol

It used to be said that men predominantly liked salty snacks and women liked sweets. Food preference, in that sense, was related to chromosomes.

It may go deeper than that. Even your preference for fats, carbohydrates and proteins may be genetic. Researchers have found that the apolipoprotein A-II gene (APOA2) is associated with proportions of fat, carbohydrate, and protein in the diet, total calories and, therefore, with body-mass-index (BMI.

APOA2. Courtesy: genecards.org

It may not sound like a great thing for your backyard festivities but scientists have figured out how to make the fruit fly live longer. Luckily, humans will get something out of the deal -namely the discovery that a single protein can inhibit aging means we might live longer to be annoyed by insects.

Not this Superfly. A super fruit fly. © Warner Bros.

Though the dense humid forests of Central Africa have been regarded as among the most pristine on Earth, the expansion of industrial logging and the accompanying proliferation of road density are threatening the future of this important ecosystem.

Logging concessions and road distribution in Central Africa: Cameroon (1), Central African Republic (2), Equatorial Guinea (3), Gabon (4), Republic of Congo (5), Democratic Republic of Congo (6). Credit: Woods Hole Research Center (whrc.org)

Have you ever been trying to solve a Sudoku puzzle and been gripped by a sinking feeling that maybe you were stuck with a lemon? That maybe the puzzle you are struggling with actually has no solution at all and, if you do find a solution, how can you be sure it's the only one? What if half an hour ago you had written 5 instead of 3---would you then have gone down a path to a completely different solution?

The authors of a new study use tools from the branch of mathematics called graph theory to systematically analyze Sudoku puzzles.

The Milky Way's total mass is about 100 billion solar masses - enormous to us but average among galaxies. It spirals around a black hole that is about three million solar masses, say cosmologists.

Imagine it meeting an identical twin. Were they to merge they would produce a galaxy that's even greater. Cosmologists think that's how galaxies grow; through a complex process of continuous mergers.

CLICK ABOVE FOR FULL SIZE. Composite black hole. Credit: Standford.

Egon has just posted about Nature Precedings, which looks like a no-brainer as an additional publication outlet for UsefulChem. I've requested an account and we'll see how it works. In my view, producing knowledge in a Science 2.0 world is about communicating through redundancy, making it easy to prove who-knew-what-when. That is difficult to do with the traditional scientific publication system of giving away copyright. (Not impossible, because concepts and results can be rewritten using different words, but still difficult). This should be interesting.