Category archives: Science

First synthetic embryo with brain and beating heart independently produced twice  

First synthetic embryo with brain and beating heart independently produced twice  

BiologyBiomedicine

By Rosa García-Verdugo

Mostly, people think that an embryo can only (except in the case of parthenogenesis) result from the sum of sperm and an egg. However, two research teams, one in Israel and another multinational collaboration have recently reported producing a synthetic mouse embryo from stem cells which lasted enough to have a brain and a beating […]

LSD potentiates brain plasticity, improving memory

LSD potentiates brain plasticity, improving memory

NeurosciencePharmacy

By Rosa García-Verdugo

Long disregarded as a party drug, loved by hippies and alternative thinkers, LSD has been recently demonstrated to be much more than that, being useful as an anti-depressive and in therapy against PTSD and other traumas. Now, another “power” of LSD has been uncovered: it potentiates brain plasticity, thereby improving memory and other cognitive processes […]

A blinding mutation that might increase intelligence

A blinding mutation that might increase intelligence

GeneticsNeuroscience

By Rosa García-Verdugo

How to breed more intelligent humans? This is a difficult question, one which raises numerous issues, both ethical and scientific. Would you give your eyesight away to become brighter? As crazy as this question may sound, a blinding mutation might increase intelligence. The CORD7 (cone-rod dystrophy 7) mutation of the RIMS1 gene produces progressive blindness […]

From protein design to materials design

From protein design to materials design

ChemistryMaterials

By BCMaterials

A key feature that makes natural materials highly sustainable and recyclable is their modularity. Biodegradable materials are such because biological organisms can digest and break their constituting chemicals into simpler building blocks. Often such simpler building blocks are then reused for energy or structural purposes. In other words, nature needs materials that can be broken […]

Intermittent fasting could improve nerve regeneration

Intermittent fasting could improve nerve regeneration

Molecular biologyNeuroscience

By Rosa García-Verdugo

Intermittent fasting is more than the latest diet fad, it has proven benefits –at least in animal models– against longevity, and it appears that it could even improve nerve regeneration, according to new research. The problems with axons in the peripheral nervous system is that their regenerative capacity is not very high. There are certain […]

Modelling the new neuron-glial paradigm

Modelling the new neuron-glial paradigm

MathematicsNeuroscience

By BCAM

Modelling of neuron-glial interactions is an emerging field of Computational Neuroscience. The ubiquity of these interactions and the possibility that they may occur within the time and spatial scales that are usually ascribed to neuronal and synaptic function, calls for a revision of current neuron-based modeling paradigms to include potentially relevant effects mediated by glial […]

The bigger the temperature change, the larger the extinction event

The bigger the temperature change, the larger the extinction event

Geosciences

By César Tomé

New research has unearthed evidence that points to a strong relationship between the magnitude of mass extinctions and global temperature changes in geologic times. Abrupt climate change, accompanied by environmental destruction from large volcanic eruptions and meteorites, has caused major mass extinctions throughout the Phanerozoic Eon, covering 539 million years to the present. To date […]