TECH & INNOVATION

UN Climate Summit 2014—What You Need to Know About the Events

TECH & INNOVATION As more than 120 world leaders and thousands of environmentalists descend on the Big Apple next week, New York will become the epicenter for the discussion on climate change, which will be spearheaded by the United Nations (UN). In collaboration with several environmental groups, international leaders and celebrities from the world over, the United Nations will be hosts to several events that will surround the annual ministerial meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. Here’s what you need to know!

A better way to track emerging cell therapies using MRIs

Cellular therapeutics – using intact cells to treat and cure disease – is a hugely promising new approach in medicine but it is hindered by the inability of doctors and scientists to effectively track the movements, destination and persistence of these cells in patients without resorting to invasive procedures, like tissue sampling.

Even without kids, couples eat frequent family meals

Study represents first comprehensive look at adult-only family meal patterns Study represents first comprehensive look at adult-only family meal patterns COLUMBUS, Ohio - Couples and other adult family members living without minors in the house are just as likely as adults living with young children or adolescents to eat family meals at home on most days of the week, new research suggests.

Neurons express 'gloss' using three perceptual parameters

Japanese researchers showed monkeys a number of images representing various glosses and then they measured the responses of 39 neurons by using microelectrodes. They found that a specific population of neurons changed the intensities of the responses linearly according to either the contrast-of-highlight, sharpness-of-highlight, or brightness of the object. This shows that these 3 perceptual parameters are used as parameters when the brain recognizes a variety of glosses. They also found that different parameters are represented by different populations of neurons. This was published in the Journal of Neuroscience (September 4, 2014 issue).

A refined approach to proteins at low resolution

Membrane proteins and large protein complexes are notoriously difficult to study with X-ray crystallography, not least because they are often very difficult, if not impossible, to crystallize, but also because their very nature means they are highly flexible. The result is that when a structure can be obtained it is often of low resolution, ambiguous and reveals a mosaic-like spread of protein domains that sometimes create more puzzles than they solve. [Schröder, Levitt & Brunger. (2014), Acta Cryst. D70, 2241-2255; doi: 10.1107/S1399004714016496 ]

Humanity Hasn’t Peaked—Earth Can Expect A Few Billion More Guests

Well politicians and the rest of the masses may be surprised, because it appears the largely infallible statisticians have revealed a chink in their armor: the world population estimates. With the possibilities of famine and disease, aside from the random acts of mankind, human population estimates are values calculated with a menagerie of variables. But with the ever-changing landscape of the planet Earth, and the growing populations of nearly every nation, it turns out that the Earth can expect a few billion more guests before humanity comes to its peak.

A Pontiff For the Health of the Planet

With the annual ministerial meeting of the United Nations General Assembly merely days away, eyes and ears around the world are looking for answers about issues related to the global climate crisis and the sustainability of our existence. And while we typically find a separation between the ministerial powers of faith and those of government, it appears the environmental movement may have allies in high places; perhaps as high as the heavens.

Pass the Cereal—Milky Way May Become Galaxy-Sized Snack

It’s been well-documented that massive galaxies often turn to extremes when star production ceases in their bounds of space. Turning their sights on consumption versus production, these super galaxies begin chowing down on nearby galaxies instead, pulling their growing solar systems into their own gravitational pull for themselves.

Research milestone in CCHF virus could help identify new treatments

New research into the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV), a tick-borne virus which causes a severe hemorrhagic disease in humans similar to that caused by Ebolavirus, has identified new cellular factors essential for CCHFV infection. This discovery has the potential to lead to novel targets for therapeutic interventions against the pathogen.

Sensing Neuronal Activity With Light

For years, neuroscientists have been trying to develop tools that would allow them to clearly view the brain's circuitry in action—from the first moment a neuron fires to the resulting behavior in a whole organism. To get this complete picture, neuroscientists are working to develop a range of new tools to study the brain. Researchers at Caltech have developed one such tool that provides a new way of mapping neural networks in a living organism. - See more at: http://www.caltech.edu/content/sensing-neuronal-activity-light#sthash.VE4xLVwO.dpuf

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