XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Tuesday 3 July 2012

Study Indicates Older Honey Bees Can ‘Turn Back Time,’ Reverse Brain Aging -

Study Indicates Older Honey Bees Can ‘Turn Back Time,’ Reverse Brain Aging - 




Scientists at Arizona State University have discovered that older honey bees effectively reverse brain aging when they take on nest responsibilities typically handled by much younger bees.  While current research on human age-related dementia focuses on potential new drug treatments, researchers say these findings suggest that social interventions may be used to slow or treat age-related dementia.


In a study published in the scientific journal Experimental Gerontology, a team of scientists from ASU and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, led by Gro Amdam, an associate professor in ASU’s School of Life Sciences, presented findings that show that tricking older, foraging bees into doing social tasks inside the nest causes changes in the molecular structure of their brains.


“We knew from previous research that when bees stay in the nest and take care of larvae — the bee babies — they remain mentally competent for as long as we observe them,” said Amdam. “However, after a period of nursing, bees fly out gathering food and begin aging very quickly. After just two weeks, foraging bees have worn wings, hairless bodies, and more importantly, lose brain function — basically measured as the ability to learn new things. We wanted to find out if there was plasticity in this aging pattern so we asked the question, ‘What would happen if we asked the foraging bees to take care of larval babies again?”


During experiments, scientists removed all of the younger nurse bees from the nest — leaving only the queen and babies. When the older, foraging bees returned to the nest, activity diminished for several days. Then, some of the old bees returned to searching for food, while others cared for the nest and larvae. Researchers discovered that after 10 days, about 50 percent of the older bees caring for the nest and larvae had significantly improved their ability to learn new things.


Amdam’s international team not only saw a recovery in the bees’ ability to learn, they discovered a change in proteins in the bees’ brains. When comparing the brains of the bees that improved relative to those that did not, two proteins noticeably changed. They found Prx6, a protein also found in humans that can help protect against dementia — including diseases such as Alzheimer’s — and they discovered a second and documented “chaperone” protein that protects other proteins from being damaged when brain or other tissues are exposed to cell-level stress.


Read more - 
http://www.dailydisruption.com/2012/07/study-indicates-older-honey-bees-can-turn-back-time-reverse-brain-aging/

Video from Space Shows US Army Creating an Island Off the Coast of the Chesapeake Bay -

Video from Space Shows US Army Creating an Island Off the Coast of the Chesapeake Bay - 


Video from Space Shows Army Creating an Island Off the Coast of the US



The Army has been creating an island since 1998 on the Northeast coast of the United States. Slowly, the US Army Corps of Engineers built concrete dikes to establish its perimeter and then have spent more than decade filling them with mud.


Its name: Poplar island.
Fortunately, no weird stuff is going on there (that we know of, anyway). Poplar Island, which is being rebuilt in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, is 30 miles south of Baltimore Harbor, where all the mud is coming from.


Right now, the island is a wildlife sanctuary, home of 170 species of birds "including terns and bald eagles" as well as hundreds of diamondback terrapins.


The images for this time-lapse were taking by a Landsat satellite, which is managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. [US Army and Flickr]


Read more -
http://gizmodo.com/5923158/video-from-space-shows-us-army-creating-an-island-in-the-atlantic

The National Ocean Service says there is no evidence that Mermaids exist -

The National Ocean Service says there is no evidence that Mermaids exist - 




There is no evidence that mermaids exist, a US government scientific agency has said.


The National Ocean Service made the unusual declaration in response to public inquiries following a TV show on the mythical creatures.


It is thought some viewers may have mistaken the programme for a documentary.


"No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found," the service wrote in an online post.


The National Ocean Service posted an article last week on its educational website, Ocean Facts.


Images and tales of mermaids - half-human, half-fish - appear in mythology and art from across the world and through history, from Homer's Odyssey to the oral lore of the Australian aboriginals, the service wrote.


The article was written from publicly available sources because "we don't have a mermaid science programme", National Ocean Service spokeswoman Carol Kavanagh told the BBC.


She said that at least two people had written to the agency asking about the creatures.


The inquiries followed May's broadcast of Mermaids: The Body Found, on the Discovery Channel's Animal Planet network.


The programme was a work of fiction but its wink-and-nod format apparently led some viewers to believe it was a science education show, the Discovery Channel has acknowledged.


Read more - 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18692830

State hopes talking urinal cakes dissuade drunk drivers -

State hopes talking urinal cakes dissuade drunk drivers - 




Michigan hopes to keep drunks off the road with the help from a special message in men's bathrooms featuring an attention-getting woman's voice.
Talking urinal-deodorizer cakes have been distributed to Michigan Licensed Beverage Association members in Wayne County, including Detroit, state officials announced. A recorded message will play reminding men who step up to the urinals to call a cab or a friend, if needed, to get home safely.
"Not only do we want to turn some heads and get people talking, we hope everyone takes the message to heart," Michael L. Prince, director of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning, said in a statement.
Bay, Ottawa and Delta counties also are getting them. The motion-activated messages are part of a statewide Fourth of July education and enforcement effort. The federally funded drunken driving crackdown runs through Sunday. It also includes stepped up patrols in 26 counties involving a number of agencies.




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/02/michigan-hopes-talking-urinal-cakes-dissuade-drunk-drivers/#ixzz1zWws1Qvr?test=latestnews