New drug promising for treatment of Parkinson's

Parkinson's disease affects the part of the brain that takes care of muscle control. Because the brain part responsible for these functions is dying in patients with Parkinson's, the symptoms slowly progress from slight tremors to all kinds of problems that also affect cognition and behaviour. Our ever-increasing knowledge of the brain and its pathology has resulted in several interesting and novel treatments, such as electrical stimulation. In addition, scientists have recently uncovered how vitamins, diet and genes affect symptoms in Parkinson's. However, there is still no proper cure, but a novel drug that is currently being tested has shown very promising results.

Method devised to build our own proteins

Proteins are the basic building blocks of cells, and they have all sorts of functions. Some of them appear as true building blocks that hold the cell together, but others catalyse chemical reactions in the body, and are known as enzymes. There is an enourmous variety in the functions that proteins can perform, which is basically governed by their shape. Proteins are created from long chains that automatically fold into the right position. This folding process is what interests scientists, because we can use it to make our own proteins. A group of scientists has now devised a set of principles to actually make this happen.

Looking through the eyes of a monkey

It is not easy to decipher the behaviour of animals, because they have no way of communicating their motives and feelings to us. That is why we have to rely on rather indirect measurements to analyze their behaviour. A new method, developed by the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus literally lets us look through the eyes of animals. Their technique tracks eye movement, and thereby allows us to see what the animal sees. According to the researchers, this helps with improving behavioural studies.

Nano structures aid in studying individual cells

A cell is the most basic form of life there is. Some organisms consist of just a single cell, but us human beings have billions of them. Because we consist of so many individual components, cells need to work closely together. They do so by forming a cooperation of multiple cells that all do the same thing. That is what we call tissue. Communication is very important, and cells normally receive signals from all sides. In the lab, things are a bit different. We use special culture flasks in which the cells attach to the bottom. However, this does not accurately mimic the situation in the body. Scientists from the University of Twente have designed nano structures to grow cells individually, in the shape of a pyramid.

Time is not symmetrical, new study shows

We experience time as a straight line; it only goes forward and never backwards, unless you are playing back a piece of video or audio in reverse. This is something that is never questioned, but the wondrous world of quantum mechanics has taught us to look differently at things that seem obvious. Einstein already proved with his theory of relativity that time differs depending on the observer, but individual particles appear to go one step further. There supposedly is an anti-particle for every particle that has exact opposites characteristics, and that also means that it has a different direction in time. An associated theory is dubbed supersymmetry, but scientists have revealed that time is actually asymmetrical.

Device prints words directly on a blind person's retina

Blindness is very hard to cure, and it is one of the few things for which there are barely any effective treatments. Being blind is often permanent, but newly developed technologies offer a bit of hope for those who are unable to see. For example, a newly developed eye implant based on laser looks very promising, and the same goes for attempts with gene therapy. Now, scientists from the company Second Sight have developed a device that stimulates the retina, which is the light-sensitive tissue of the eye. This way they succeeded in letting blind people read words and even see colour.

Recordings show that fetuses yawn in the womb

Ever so often we discover things that do not seem particularly useful, but are still interesting enough to mention. An example of this is a recent study regarding the phenomenon of yawning. A group of scientists working at Durham and Lancaster University tried to find out whether fetuses also exhibit this peculiar form of behaviour. While we do not actually understand the function of yawning, aside from a rather interesting and recent theory, we at least know that we already do so in the womb.