Archive for category: Science

Understanding the molecular mechanisms of our internal clocks may enable the development of therapies for sleep disorders and other effects of clock disruption.

A new study of molecular interactions central to the functioning of biological clocks explains how certain mutations can shorten clock timing, making some people extreme “morning larks” because their internal clocks operate on a 20-hour cycle instead of being synchronized with the 24-hour cycle of day and night.

The study, published February 11 in eLife, shows that the same molecular switch mechanism affected by these mutations is at work in animals ranging from fruit flies to people.

“Many people with sleep phase disorders have changes in their clock proteins,” said Carrie Partch, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC Santa Cruz and a corresponding author of the paper. “Generally, mutations that make the clock run shorter have a morning lark effect, and those that make the clock run longer have a pronounced night owl effect.”

 

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A new study in Burns & Trauma, published by Oxford University Press, reveals promising new strategies to prevent skin scarring after injuries.

While scars are common when wounds heal, hypertrophic scarring is a skin condition characterized by deposits of excessive amounts of collagen. This results in a thick and often raised scar. The underlying mechanisms of hypertrophic scar development are poorly understood, however. The Burns & Trauma paper reviewed strategies for treating hypertrophic scars.

Skin wound healing is a process that consists of three phases: inflammation, proliferation, and regeneration. Hypertrophic scar formation can occur as a result of an abnormality in these processes. The frequency of such scarring ranges from 40% to 94% following surgery and from 30% to 91% following a burn injury. In poorer countries, the incidence rate is greater reflecting the high rate of burn injuries.

Major risk factors for hypertrophic scar formation include gender, age, genetic predisposition, wound size and depth, anatomical site, and mechanical tension on the wound. Such scarring hinders normal function, and obviously results serious physical, psychological, and aesthetic problems for patients.

It is widely accepted that the time to complete wound healing is the most important factor to predict the development of hypertrophic scars. Only one-third of wounds developed scarring tissue if healing occurred between 14 and 21 days. Some 78% of the sites resulted in serious scarring if the wound healed after 21 days.

The established therapies for preventing serious skin scarring include pressure therapy, which has long been considered the mainstay non-invasive treatment for hypertrophic scarring. It is widely used worldwide and its effectiveness has been established. It’s likely more effective suggested that it is more effective if pressure therapy is performed within two months after the initial injury.

Other interventions include silicone, steroids, and laser therapy. While the effectiveness of silicone therapy has not been completely determined, the topical administration of steroids for burn injuries has been generally used and reported to be effective. There is consistent evidence that early laser intervention for the prevention would be beneficial in both the speed of scar reduction and the efficacy of therapeutic response.

Resection (cutting out the tissue) and radiation can often be used in addition to the primary therapies. Surgical approaches do, however, vary with the type of scar. Researchers involved with this paper argue that we need long term results in order to make decisions about using resection or radiation as a medical intervention.

The drug botulinum toxin A (btxA) is widely used for cosmetic purposes, as well as treating headaches and other pain. It is also often used to treat hypertrophic scars. Researchers involved in this paper emphasize that while btxA appears to have some positive effect on scar prevention, researchers still haven’t decided on the optimal concentration of the drug to treat scarring. It may depend on the size or severity of the wound. They conclude the drug is promising and worth investigating further.

Future management possibilities for hypertrophic scar therapy include anti-angiogenesis therapy, which inhibits the development of new blood vessels, fat grafting, and stem cell therapy. There are several experimental investigations on the effectiveness such therapies to reduce abnormal tissue formation.

 

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Science is often considered a male-dominated field. In fact, according to United Nations data, less than 30% of scientific researchers worldwide are women.

Studies have shown that women are discouraged from, or become less interested in, entering the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) beginning at a young age. And according to the Pew Research Center, women remain underrepresented in engineering, computer science and physical science.

But despite challenges of gender discrimination and lack of recognition in the scientific community, countless inspiring women in these fields have made historic contributions to science and helped advance understanding of the world around us. Many were not recognized in their own lifetimes, but their achievements have helped generations of female scientists to come.

We all learned about Marie Curie and Jane Goodall, but here are 10 more women in science you should know.

American chemist Alice Ball was the first woman and first African American to receive a master’s from the University of Hawaii and went on to become the university’s first female chemistry professor. At just 23 years old, Ball developed a groundbreaking treatment for leprosy — a disease which previously had little chance of recovery and forced victims into exile.

Prior to Ball’s research on leprosy, the best treatment available was chaulmoogra oil, which was difficult for patients to ingest or apply topically and too thick to inject. While working as a research assistant at Kalihi Hospital in Hawaii, Ball developed an easily injectable form of the oil that ultimately saved countless lives and became the best treatment for leprosy until the 1940s.

Unfortunately she died before she was able to publish the findings, and the president of the University of Hawaii attempted to claim the research as his own until Ball’s former supervisor publicly spoke out that she deserved the credit for the lifesaving injection. It wasn’t until the 21st century that her achievements were fully recognized and the governor of Hawaii declared February 29 “Alice Ball Day.”

Legend has it that British chemist and DNA researcher Rosalind Franklin knew she wanted to be a scientist since she was 15 years old. That dream went on to become a reality when she was offered a prestigious scholarship to King’s College London, where she became an expert in the X-ray crystallography unit.

Franklin’s research data was the first to demonstrate the basic dimensions of DNA strands and reveal the molecule was in two matching parts, running in opposite directions. Her data was used by James Watson and Francis Crick to get their research on the DNA model across the finish line, and was published separately as supporting data alongside Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins’ research articles in Nature.

Many people in the scientific community argue that Franklin should have been awarded a Nobel Prize alongside Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins, who won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.” Unfortunately, Franklin died from ovarian cancer in 1958, just four years before the prize was awarded, even though at the time the organization could have awarded it posthumously.

Dorothy Hodgkin was a British chemist on the cutting edge of X-ray crystallography. In 1964, Hodgkin became the first and only British woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances.”

Throughout her career, she made numerous breakthrough discoveries, including the atomic structure of penicillin, the structure of vitamin B12 and the structure of insulin. Hodgkin also spent decades improving X-ray crystallography techniques, which made it possible for her to complete her innovative research on insulin and improve treatments for diabetes.

She also became the second woman to win the UK’s prestigious Order of Merit in 1965. While Hodgin was a professor at Oxford University, she even mentored Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who would go on to win the Order of Merit herself.

Grace Hopper was a trailblazing computer programmer who helped develop multiple computer languages and is considered one of the first programmers of the modern computing age.

Armed with a master’s degree and PhD in mathematics from Yale, Hopper went on to have an influential career in the private sector and the US Navy. She joined the US Naval Reserve in 1943 to help with the American war effort, and throughout WWII she worked in a prestigious lab responsible for top-secret calculations such as calibrating minesweepers, calculating the ranges of anti-aircraft guns and checking the math behind the creation of the plutonium bomb.

Her career also contributed to modern computer vernacular. While Hopper was developing some of the earliest electromechanical computers — MARK I and MARK II — she dismantled a malfunctioning computer to find that a dead moth was causing the problem. She became the first person to call computer problems “bugs” in the system.

Barbara McClintock (1902-1992)

American botanist Barbara McClintock was responsible for several groundbreaking discoveries in the field of genetics following her decades-long career studying the genetic structure of maize. McClintock studied how genetic characteristics are passed down through generations, eventually uncovering that some genes could be mobile.

In the 1940s and 1950s, McClintock’s research revealed that genetic elements could sometimes move on a chromosome and thus cause nearby genes to activate. But it wasn’t until decades later that scientists apart from maize specialists understood and recognized the immense value of her discovery.

McClintock was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1971 and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983 “for her discovery of mobile genetic elements,” now called transposons.

Austrian physicist Lise Meitner contributed significant advancements to the field of nuclear physics. She was also the first woman to become a physics professor in Germany.

Meitner’s work on nuclear fission was instrumental in her longtime research collaborator Otto Hahn winning the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, so much so that many scientists later argued it was unfair for her contributions to not have been recognized equally by the Nobel Committee. Meitner was also an advocate for the peaceful use of atomic energy and flatly refused to work on the Manhattan Project because she strongly opposed using fission to create an atom bomb.

Today, multiple prestigious awards in physics are named in honor of Meitner and she even has a chemical element — meitnerium — named after her.

 

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Researchers in the Philippines are monitoring the Taal volcano closely for signs of a major eruption. The volcano’s activity has eased since it began spewing steam and ash more than a week ago, but the threat of a large-scale eruption remains, say scientists. In addition to the immediate risk to life, such an event could contaminate water supplies and disrupt power generation for millions of people, and halt ground and air travel.

At 2:30pm local time on 12 January, Taal — which is on an island about 60 kilometres south of the capital Manila — started ejecting lava and blew a giant plume of rock fragments, known as tephra, up to 15 kilometres high. Ash travelled as far north as Quezon City, some 70 kilometres away, forcing tens of thousands of people living on Taal’s Volcano Island and in nearby provinces to evacuate.

The volcano’s activity has stalled, but this does not mean the worst is over, says volcanologist Mariton Bornas, who heads the division responsible for monitoring and predicting eruptions at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), a government agency in Quezon City, just north of Manila.

The volcano remains at level 4, the second-highest level on the country’s volcano-alert system, which means a hazardous eruption could happen in hours or days. Scientists say the threat of a major eruption remains high because PHIVOLCS has reported some 450 volcanic earthquakes in the past 24 hours, as well as the emergence of fissures, and receding of the surrounding lake. The ongoing seismic activity suggests that magma is continuing to rise to the volcano’s surface from deep within the Earth, says Bornas.

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