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"Hundreds of species of bacteria call the human gut their home. This gut "microbiome" influences our physiology and health in ways that scientists are only beginning to understand. Now, a new study suggests that gut bacteria can even mess with the mind, altering brain chemistry and changing mood and behavior. In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in how gut bacteria might influence the brain and behavior, says John Cryan, a neuroscientist at University College Cork in Ireland. So far, most of the work has focused on how pathogenic bugs influence the brain by releasing toxins or stimulating the immune system, Cryan says. One recent study suggested that even benign bacteria can alter the brain and behavior, but until now there has been very little work in this area, Cryan says."

"Hundreds of species of bacteria call the human gut their home. This gut "microbiome" influences our physiology and health in ways that scientists are only beginning to understand. Now, a new study suggests that gut bacteria can even mess with the mind, altering brain chemistry and changing mood and behavior. In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in how gut bacteria might influence the brain and behavior, says John Cryan, a neuroscientist at University College Cork in Ireland. So far, most of the work has focused on how pathogenic bugs influence the brain by releasing toxins or stimulating the immune system, Cryan says. One recent study suggested that even benign bacteria can alter the brain and behavior, but until now there has been very little work in this area, Cryan says."

We all know information stored in subconscious mind is permanent and if we can find out how to bypass the conscious state we can do a lot of good things like we can get rid of smoking and other health benefits. Find out how we can alter the conscious state of mind and put information directly to subconscious mind. Science revealed how hypnosis affects the brain.

We all know information stored in subconscious mind is permanent and if we can find out how to bypass the conscious state we can do a lot of good things like we can get rid of smoking and other health benefits. Find out how we can alter the conscious state of mind and put information directly to subconscious mind. Science revealed how hypnosis affects the brain.

Our intrepid reporter performs an intimate act in an fMRI scanner to explore the pathways of pleasure and pain

"Plastic is produced in large amounts and used for various purposes. After use, huge amounts end up in the enviroment, often in the oceans. There, fragmentation leads to small particles, called microplastics. By filtrating and benthos-feeding organisms it can be inadvertently taken up as food. We demonstrate that the unicellular ciliate Paramecium, the freshwater flea Daphnia and the blue mussel Mytilus took up microplastic particles. Even more, in Mytilus, the plastic particles were transported into the digestive gland and accumulated in the respective cells. Subsequently, pathological alterations in the gland were noted. Microplastics are of concern because animals might starve with a full belly after uptaking large amounts of microplastics. As well, particles with sharp edges can injure the mucous layer of the gastrointestinal tract. Furthermore, persistent organic pollutants adhere at plastic and thus, may cause adverse impacts on the animal. We show options for solutions and indicate selected organisations working on the development of solution"

"KnuEdge is an innovation hub whose mission is to lead fundamental transformations, and deliver next-generation technologies that will alter how humans interact with machines - ranging from robust voice recognition and authentication to machine learning."

"We provide novel evidence for the effects of metabolic dysfunctions on brain function using the rat model of metabolic syndrome induced by high fructose intake. * We describe that the deleterious consequences of unhealthy dietary habits can be partially counteracted by dietary supplementation of n-3 fatty acid. * High sugar consumption impaired cognitive abilities and disrupted insulin signalling by engaging molecules associated with energy metabolism and synaptic plasticity; in turn, the presence of docosahexaenoic acid, an n-3 fatty acid, restored metabolic homeostasis. * These findings expand the concept of metabolic syndrome affecting the brain and provide the mechanistic evidence of how dietary habits can interact to regulate brain functions, which can further alter lifelong susceptibility to the metabolic disorders. "

"So-called jumping genes, segments of DNA that can copy and paste them­selves into new places in the genome, can alter the activity of full-length genes. Occasionally they will turn on neighboring genes in these locations. That activity occurs more in the brain than other areas, resulting in different traits and behaviors, even in closely related individuals. These mobile genetic elements may also turn out to play a role in people's disposition to psychiatric disorders"

"The molecule PKR (the double-stranded RNA-activated protein kinase) was originally described as a sensor of viral infections, but its function in the brain was totally unknown," said Dr. Mauro Costa-Mattioli, assistant professor of neuroscience at BCM and senior author of the paper. Since the activity of PKR is altered in a variety of cognitive disorders, Costa-Mattioli and colleagues decided to take a closer look at its role in the mammalian brain. Super memory The authors discovered that mice lacking PKR in the brain have a kind of "super" memory. "

"We found that adult Nod2-deficient mice display a substantially altered microbial community structure and a significantly elevated bacterial load in their faeces and terminal ileum compared to their wild-type counterparts. Interestingly, we demonstrate that these findings are also present in weaning mice, indicating a profound influence of Nod2 on the early development and composition of the intestinal microbiota. We demonstrate that NOD2 genotypes also influence the microbial composition in humans. Conclusions Our results point to an essential role of Nod2 for the temporal development and composition of the host microbiota, both in mice and in humans, which may contribute to the complex role of NOD2 for the aetiopathogenesis of Crohn's disease. "

"In der neuen Studie konnte das Team um Tobias Krause von der Universität Bielefeld nun zusätzlich zeigen, dass die Singvögel aufgrund dieses Geruchs auch wissen, mit wem sie verwandt sind und mit wem nicht. "Zebrafinken eignen sich für eine solche Untersuchung besonders gut, da sie Nesthocker sind und so während ihrer Aufzucht nur mit einigen wenigen Verwandten in Berührung kommen. Im erwachsenen Alter leben sie aber in großen, miteinander verwandten Verbänden zusammen", erläutern die Wissenschaftler. Ab dann sei es für die Tiere also entscheidend, unbekannte Verwandte von Nicht-Verwandten zu unterscheiden. Da ihnen dabei Gefieder oder Gesang nicht unbedingt hilft, vermuteten die Wissenschaftler, dass die Vögel Verwandte erschnuppern."

"Suffering for Fashion … and Sex Appeal? Nine out of ten women wear shoes that are too tight for them. And eight out of ten women admit to wearing shoes that hurt... These ideas have been explored previously by numerous other researchers. For example, Rossi notes that high-heels alter the tilt of the pelvis, resulting in more prominence of the buttocks and displaying of the breasts, creating a "come-hither pose" also described by Rossi as the "pouter pigeon" pose, "with lots of breast and tail balanced precariously on a pair of stilts " http://ed.iiQii.de/gallery/Querdenkerinnen/High_Heel_Pumps_wikipedia_org

"The SOS-Ras-Raf-MAPK cascade plays a central role here. In about 25% of human tumors, Ras proteins are present in structurally altered forms that enable them to release a flux of mitogenic signals into cells, without ongoing stimulation by their normal upstream regulators (Medema and Bos 1993). We suspect that growth signaling pathways suffer deregulation in all"

""Frauen fühlen sich von einer Hebamme besser betreut, wenn die etwas macht oder ihnen etwas gibt. Das ist bei einem Arzt nicht anders", sagt Regine Knobloch, beratende Hebamme beim Deutschen Hebammenverband. In Deutschland spiele auch der Wettbewerb unter Hebammen eine Rolle, sagt Knobloch. Wer in der Begleitung von Schwangeren oder der Wochenbettbetreuung keine Homöopathie, Aromatherapie oder ähnliche Verfahren anbiete, finde womöglich weniger Kundinnen. Der Einsatz alternativer Therapien sei "kongruent mit der Philosophie von Hebammen", schreibt Helen Hall etwas sperrig. Was das heißt? "Viele sehen sich in der Tradition alter Kräuterfrauen, die Hebammen früher waren", sagt Knobloch. "Gleichzeitig fechten Hebammen seit mindestens dem 18. Jahrhundert einen Macht- und Verteilungskampf mit der Ärzteschaft aus", sagt der Historiker Robert Jütt"

Dr Simon Archer and his team at Surrey University were particularly interested in looking at the genes that were switched on or off in our volunteers by changes in the amount that we had made them sleep. "We found that overall there were around 500 genes that were affected," Archer explained. "Some which were going up, and some which were going down." What they discovered is that when the volunteers cut back from seven-and-a-half to six-and-a-half hours' sleep a night, genes that are associated with processes like inflammation, immune response and response to stress became more active. The team also saw increases in the activity of genes associated with diabetes and risk of cancer. The reverse happened when the volunteers added an hour of sleep. So the clear message from this experiment was that if you are getting less than seven hours' sleep a night and can alter your sleep habits, even just a little bit, it could make you healthier

The face of high-elevation evergreen forests in Western Canada could be drastically altered as a combination of climate change, human and natural disturbances is making spruce and pine forests in the Rocky Mountains vulnerable to a slow but steady invasion of aspen trees.

Brain, bodily awareness, and the emergence of a conscious self: these entities and their relations are explored by Germanphilosopher and cognitive scientist Metzinger. Extensively working with neuroscientists he has come to the conclusion that, in fact, there is no such thing as a "self" -- that a "self" is simply the content of a model created by our brain - part of a virtual reality we create for ourselves. But if the self is not "real," he asks, why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct the self? In a series of fascinating virtual reality experiments, Metzinger and his colleagues have attempted to create so-called "out-of-body experiences" in the lab, in order to explore these questions. As a philosopher, he offers a discussion of many of the latest results in robotics, neuroscience, dream and meditation research, and argues that the brain is much more powerful than we have ever imagined. He shows us, for example, that we now have the first machines that have developed an inner image of their own body -- and actually use this model to create intelligent behavior. In addition, studies exploring the connections between phantom limbs and the brain have shown us that even people born without arms or legs sometimes experience a sensation that they do in fact have limbs that are not there. Experiments like the "rubber-hand illusion" demonstrate how we can experience a fake hand as part of our self and even feel a sensation of touch on the phantom hand form the basis and testing ground for the idea that what we have called the "self" in the past is just the content of a transparent self-model in our brains. Now, as new ways of manipulating the conscious mind-brain appear on the scene, it will soon become possible to alter our subjective reality in an unprecedented manner. The cultural consequences of this, Metzinger claims, may be immense: we will need a new approach to ethics, and we will be forced to think about ourselves in a fundamentally new way. At

A definitive geological timeline shows that a series of massive volcanic explosions 66 million years ago spewed enormous amounts of climate-altering gases into the atmosphere immediately before and during the extinction event that claimed Earth's non-avian dinosaurs, according to new research from Princeton University. A primeval volcanic range in western India known as the Deccan Traps, which were once three times larger than France, began its main phase of eruptions roughly 250,000 years before the Cretaceous-Paleogene, or K-Pg, extinction event, the researchers report in the journal Science. For the next 750,000 years, the volcanoes unleashed more than 1.1 million cubic kilometers (264,000 cubic miles) of lava. The main phase of eruptions comprised about 80-90 percent of the total volume of the Deccan Traps' lava flow and followed a substantially weaker first phase that began about 1 million years earlier.

Racing against other companies around the globe, International Battery isn the front lines of an effort to build smaller, lighter, more powerful batteries that could help transform the American energy economy by replacing gasoline in cars and making windmills and solar cells easier to integrate into the power grid.