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sugar molecules, known as glycolaldehyde, have previously been detected in interstellar space

according to the researchers, this is the first time they have been spotted so close to a sun-like star

the molecules are about the same distance away from the star as the planet Uranus is from our sun.

glycolaldehyde, which is a simple form of sugar, not much different to the sugar we put in coffee

found the sugar molecules using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile

Prolonged hypoglycemia risks neurological injury.

Low blood glucose shows up in 5 to 15 percent of otherwise healthy newborns as measured by blood tests

Doctors typically don’t run the analysis on every newborn

If they spot low blood sugar symptoms such as poor color, seizures, irritability, lethargy, jittery behavior and a lack of interest in feeding, doctors are more likely to call for the blood test

many infants with low blood glucose don’t have such symptoms

report designates at-risk infants as those who are born preterm, have diabetic mothers, or are either large or small for their gestational age

new study, the researchers identified 237 apparently healthy newborns who had one of those risk factors or who were feeding poorly

Half of the babies were randomly assigned to get a gel made of dextrose, a form of glucose, rubbed on the inner cheeks up to six times over 48 hours; the rest received a placebo gel

During the following week, 30 babies getting the placebo gel were placed in intensive care for hypoglycemia while only 16 of those getting the dextrose gel needed such care for the condition

Dextrose had been tried in the 1990s as an oral rub for infants but wasn’t fully tested or put into widespread use

strips electrons from glucose molecules to create a small electric current

The idea of a glucose fuel cell is not new

In the 1970s, scientists showed they could power a pacemaker with a glucose fuel cell, but the idea was abandoned in favor of lithium-ion batteries, which could provide significantly more power per unit area than glucose fuel cells

glucose fuel cells also utilized enzymes that proved to be impractical for long-term implantation in the body, since they eventually ceased to function efficiently

The new twist

is that it is fabricated from silicon, using the same technology used to make semiconductor electronic chips

has no biological components

consists of a platinum catalyst that strips electrons from glucose

mimicking the activity of cellular enzymes that break down glucose to generate ATP

So far, the fuel cell can generate up to hundreds of microwatts — enough to power an ultra-low-power and clinically useful neural implant.

in theory, the glucose fuel cell could get all the sugar it needs from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that bathes the brain and protects it from banging into the skull

are very few cells in the CSF

There is also significant glucose in the CSF, which does not generally get used by the body

only a small fraction of the available power is utilized by the glucose fuel cell, the impact on the brain’s function would likely be small.

the work is a good step toward developing implantable medical devices that don’t require external power sources.

ultra-low-power electronics, having pioneered such designs for cochlear implants and brain implants

combined with such ultra-low-power electronics, can enable brain implants or other implants to be completely self-powered

group has worked on all aspects of implantable brain-machine interfaces and neural prosthetics, including recording from nerves, stimulating nerves

decoding nerve signals and communicating wirelessly with implants

designed to record electrical activity from hundreds of neurons in the brain’s motor cortex, which is responsible for controlling movement

data is amplified and converted into a digital signal so that computers

can analyze it and determine which patterns of brain activity produce movement

In some ways we were biasing the results against weight loss

the mice used in the study hadn't been given a high-fat, high-sugar diet to increase their weight beforehand

The question is whether we might have seen a stronger effect if they were on a different diet

finding ways to manipulate microbial populations to mimic those effects could become a valuable new tool to address obesity

study suggests that the specific effects of gastric bypass on the microbiota contribute to its ability to cause weight loss

need to learn a good deal more about the mechanisms by which a microbial population changed by gastric bypass exert its effects,

then we need to learn if we can produce these effects – either the microbial changes or the associated metabolic changes – without surgery

it may be years before they could be replicated in humans, and that such microbial changes shouldn't be viewed as a way to lose

pounds without going to the gym

the technique may one day offer hope to dangerously obese people who want to lose weight without going through the trauma of surgery.

may not be that we will have a magic pill that will work for everyone who's slightly overweight

But if we can, at a minimum, provide some alternative to gastric bypass surgery that produces similar effects, it would be a major advance

While there had been hints that the microbes in the gut might change after bypass surgery, the speed and extent of the change came as a surprise to the research team

In earlier experiments, researchers had shown that the guts of both lean and obese mice are populated by varying amounts of two types of bacteria

When mice undergo gastric bypass surgery, however, it "resets the whole picture

those changes occurred within a week of the surgery, and weren't short-lived – the altered gut microbial community remained stable for months afterward

the results may hold out the hope for weight loss without surgery

future studies are needed to understand exactly what is behind the weight loss seen in mice

A major gap in our knowledge is the underlying mechanism linking microbes to weight loss

certain microbes

found at higher abundance after surgery,

think those are good targets for beginning to understand what's taking place

the answer may not be the specific types of microbes, but a by-product they excrete.

In addition to changes in the microbes found in the gut, researchers found changes in the concentration of certain short-chain fatty acids

Other studies

have suggested that those molecules may be critical in signaling to the host to speed up metabolism, or not to store excess calories as fat.

hope to continue to explore those questions

such studies will allow us to understand how host/microbial interactions in general can influence the outcome of a given diet

Chaser demonstrated her grasp of the basic elements of grammar by responding correctly to commands such as “to ball take Frisbee” and its reverse, “to Frisbee take ball.”

The dog had previous, extensive training to recognize classes of words including nouns, verbs and prepositions

Throughout the first three years of Chaser’s life, Pilley and a colleague trained the dog to recognize and fetch more than 1,000 objects by name

researchers also taught Chaser the meaning of different types of words, such as verbs and prepositions

Chaser learned that phrases such as “to Frisbee” meant that she should take whatever was in her mouth to the named object.

Exactly how the dog gained her command of grammar is unclear

suspects that

first mentally linked each of two nouns she heard in a sentence to objects in her memory. Then

held that information in mind while deciding which of two objects to bring to which of two other objects.

Chaser started sentence training at age 7. She stood facing a pair of objects she knew by name

An experimenter would say, for instance, “to ball take Frisbee.” In initial trials, the experimenter pointed at each item while saying its name.

After several weeks of training, two experiments conducted

had to choose an object from one pair to carry to an object from the other pair

read commands that included words for those objects. Only some of those words had been used during sentence training

To see whether Chaser grasped that grammar could be used flexibly

student also read sentences in the reversed form of “take sugar to decoy.”

In 28 of 40 attempts, Chaser grabbed the correct item in her mouth and dropped it next to the correct target.

Another experiment tested Chaser’s ability to understand commands when she couldn’t see the objects at first

with two objects behind her at the other end of the bed

After hearing a command, Chaser turned around and nabbed one of the objects.

then ran to the living room and delivered the item to one of another pair of objects. She succeeded on all 12 trials

Even partial weight regain is associated with worsened diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors

studied more than 100 postmenopausal

took part in a five-month weight-loss program

continued to monitor the women for a year

During the weight-loss program the women lost an average of 25 pounds

After a year, two-thirds of the women had regained at least four pounds, on average regaining about 70 percent of the weight they had lost

Women who regained 4.4 pounds or more in the year following the weight-loss intervention had several worsened cardiovascular and diabetes risk factors

women who maintained their weight loss a year later managed to preserve most of the benefits

this study highlights the importance of not just losing weight, but the need to develop effective and enduring strategies so that this weight loss can be successfully maintained long term

People should be focusing on being healthy, not skinny,

create strategies for reaching and maintaining a healthy weight throughout their lifetime

Start with simple changes such as swapping seltzer for soda, keeping a daily food record, adding a salad to lunch and substituting a second vegetable for half the starch at dinner

One question is whether the hadrosaur skin was green or grey, like most dinosaurs are portrayed, or was it a completely different colour

the CLS to look at unique structures called melanosomes, cellular organelles the contain pigments that control the color of an animal's skin.

"If we are able to observe the melanosomes and their shape, it will be the first time pigments have been identified in the skin of a dinosaur

There has been research that proved the colour of some dinosaur feathers, but never skin

Using light at the CLS mid-infrared (Mid-IR) beamline, Barbi and CLS scientists are also looking for traces of organic and inorganic elements that could help determine the hadrosaur's diet and why the skin sample was preserved almost intact

the sample is placed in the path of the infrared beam and light reflects off of it.

, chemical bonds of certain compounds will create different vibrations

For example, proteins, sugars and fats still found in the skin will create unique vibrational frequencies that scientists can measure

a gray plastic vessel, as long as a baseball bat, filled with water from Lake Whillans, half a mile below.

The bottle was hurried into a 40-foot cargo container outfitted as a laboratory on skis

Some of the lake water was squirted into bottles of media in order to grow whatever microbes might inhabit the lake

cultures could require weeks to produce results

When lake water was viewed under a microscope, cells were seen: their tiny bodies glowed green in response to DNA-sensitive dye. It was the first evidence of life in an Antarctic subglacial lake.

(A Russian team has reported that two types of bacteria were found in water from subglacial Lake Vostok, but DNA sequences matched those of bacteria that are known to live inside kerosene—causing the scientists to conclude that those bacteria came from kerosene drilling fluid used to bore the hole, and not from Lake Vostok itself

In order to conclusively demonstrate that Lake Whillans harbors life, the researchers will need to complete more time-consuming experiments showing that the cells actually grow

dead cells can sometimes show up under a microscope with DNA-sensitive

weeks or months will pass before it is known whether these cells represent known types of microbes, or something never seen before

t a couple of things seem likely. Most of those microbes probably subsist by chewing on rocks. And despite being sealed beneath 2,600 feet of ice, they probably have a steady supply of oxygen.

oxygen comes from water melting off the base of the ice sheet—maybe a few penny thicknesses of ice per year

When you melt ice, you’re liberating the air bubbles [trapped in that ice

That’s 20 percent oxygen

, lake bacteria could live on commonly occurring pyrite minerals that contain iron and sulfur

would obtain energy by using oxygen to essentially “burn” that iron and sulfur (analogous to the way that animals use oxygen to slowly burn sugars and fats).

The half mile of glacial ice sitting atop Lake Whillans is quite pure—derived from snow that fell onto Antarctica thousands of years ago.

contains only one-hundredth the level of dissolved minerals that are seen in a clear mountain creek, or in tap water from a typical city

a sensor lowered down the borehole this week showed that dissolved minerals were far more abundant in the lake itself

The fact that we see high concentrations is suggestive that there’s some interesting water-rock-microbe interaction that’s going on

Microbes, in other words, might well be munching on minerals under the ice sheet

will take months or years to unravel this picture

will perform experiments to see whether microbes taken from the lake metabolize iron, sulfur, or other components of minerals

will analyze the DNA of those microbes to see whether they’re related to rock-chewing bacteria that are already known to science.

Antarctica isn’t the only place in the solar system where water sits concealed in the dark beneath thick ice. Europa and Enceladus (moons of Jupiter and Saturn, respectively) are also thought to harbor oceans of liquid water. What is learned at Lake Whillans could shed light on how best to look for life in these other places