1…………> Memory Transplant: Marine Mammals
Scientists have successfully transferred a memory from one marine snail to another, a research result that will improve scientists’ understanding of memory’s cellular and molecular processes that are very similar in humans and snails, and may pave the way for better treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder and Alzheimer’s disease.
Seven of the snails that received the new RNA then went on to hide in their shells for an average of 40 seconds when the scientists came knocking, according to a paper published today in the journal eNeuro.
“It’s as though we transferred the memory,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. David Glanzman, from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Professor Glanzman said in future it might be possible to awaken and restore memories that have gone dormant in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease or ameliorate the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-15/scientists-transplant-memory-from-one-snail-to-another/9761590
2…………> Let’s Go Sailing: Europa
During NASA’s Galileo spacecraft 1997 flyby Jupiter’s moon Europa, a bend in the celestial body magnetic field appears to have been caused by a geyser gushing through its frozen crust from a subsurface ocean, giving researchers reason to infer that water plumes are shooting into space.
“We know that Europa has a lot of the ingredients necessary for life, certainly for life as we know it. There’s water. There’s energy. There’s some amount of carbon material. But the habitability of Europa is one of the big questions that we want to understand,” said planetary scientist Elizabeth Turtle of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
“And one of the really exciting things about detection of a plume is that that means there may be ways that the material from the ocean — which is likely the most habitable part of Europa because it’s warmer and it’s protected from the radiation environment by the ice shell — to come out above the ice shell.
“And that means we’d be able to sample it.”
3…………> Worksite Enforcement: ICE
Following a directive by Deputy Director Thomas Homan calling for increased worksite enforcement investigations to ensure U.S. businesses maintain a culture of compliance, HSI opened 3,510 worksite investigations; initiated 2,282 I-9 audits; and made 594 criminal and 610 administrative worksite-related arrests, respectively. In comparison, for the fiscal year 2017 – running October 2016 to September 2017 – HSI opened 1,716 worksite investigations; initiated 1,360 I-9 audits; and made 139 criminal arrests and 172 administrative arrests related to worksite enforcement.
“Our worksite enforcement strategy continues to focus on the criminal prosecution of employers who knowingly break the law, and the use of I-9 audits and civil fines to encourage compliance with the law,” said Acting Executive Associate Director for HSI, Derek N. Benner. “HSI’s worksite enforcement investigators help combat worker exploitation, illegal wages, child labor and other illegal practices.”
ICE is the federal agency responsible for upholding the laws established by the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, which requires employers to verify the identity and work eligibility of all individuals they hire. These laws help protect jobs for U.S. citizens and others who are lawfully employed, eliminate unfair competitive advantages for companies that hire an illegal workforce, and strengthen public safety and national security.
4…………> Let’s Go Homeless: Seattle
What are the advantages of being homeless? Below are some scattered thoughts:
1. You don’t have to watch “Fake News”, or any news at all, but could in the news yourself.
2. You ain’t got no money, pay no taxes, own nothing except your blanket and possibly a pillow.
3. You can sleep as long as you can until unwelcome hunger wakes you up.
4. No social fly considerations, fashion, daily washing and grooming and other annoying waste of time.
5. You can shout at anybody smaller than you, and show a finger to someone bigger than you, provided he is across a tall fence.
6. All the money you collect are absolutely tax-free, and the extra quarters earned by selling your empty cans and bottles do not need to be reported to IRS.
Apparently, the Seattle City Council is trying to violate your Constitutional rights to sleep under that cozy and safe underpass by voting unanimously for a passage of “housing affordability” tax, a “fat-cat” tax that will raise $47million from those poor guys at Amazon and Starbucks who have piled up so much money that a cash purchase of the US government is not out of the question.
“We remain very apprehensive about the future created by the council’s hostile approach and rhetoric toward larger businesses,” said Amazon’s vice president Drew Herdener disagreed following the vote.
“[It] forces us to question our growth here.”
And Starbucks said: “This City continues to spend without reforming and fail without accountability.”
5…………> Yogurt Diet: A Delicious Miracle?
Results from a new study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison supports the hypothesis that yogurt can reduce inflammation by improving the integrity of the intestinal lining, thus preventing endotoxins, the pro-inflammatory molecules produced by gut microbes, from crossing into the bloodstream.
In a sample of 120 premenopausal women, half obese and half non-obese, half of the participants were assigned to eat 12 ounces of low-fat yogurt every day for nine weeks while a control group ate non-dairy pudding for nine weeks.
Team leader Dr.Brad Bolling, assistant professor of food science at Wisconsin-Madison, and his associates took fasting blood samples from participants at various points during the study and evaluated an assortment of biomarkers that scientists have used to measure endotoxin exposure and inflammation.
The results showed that while some of the biomarkers remained steady over time, the yogurt-eaters experienced statistically significant improvements in certain key markers, such as tumor necrosis factor or TNF, an important inflammation-activating protein.
“The results indicate that ongoing consumption of yogurt may be having a general anti-inflammatory effect,” said Dr.Bolling.
A study published on Monday in the Journal of Nutrition provided new evidence that yogurt might help dampen chronic inflammation, a factor in inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, and asthma.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-05/15/c_137178870.htm
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