VirtualBody

The sight of unhealthy food during a period of sleep restriction activated reward centers in the brain that were less active when participants had adequate sleep, according to a new study using brain scans to better understand the link between sleep restriction and obesity.

Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum, both 32, were looking for a way of turning everyday objects into touchpads. They have developed a kit called MakeyMakey, that can turn fruit, animals and even humans into keyboards. Mr Rosenbaum told the BBC the idea behind the kit was to enable people to "see the world around them as a construction kit."

London surgeons are currently trialling Kinect's motion control capabilities at St Thomas' hospital in London. The devices are being used during keyhole surgery to allow surgeons to manipulate images with voice and gestures.

The oxygen and food we consume are converted into energy by tiny organelles present in each cell, the mitochondria. These 'power plants' must be continuously supplied with fuel, to maintain all vital functions. A team led by Jean-Claude Martinou, professor at the University of Geneva, has identified this fuel's carrier, baptized Mitochondrial Pyruvate Carrier. The study, published online by Science, henceforth allows the researchers to investigate how the activity of the carrier is modulated.

Metabolic interactions between multiple cell types are difficult to model using existing approaches. Here we present a workflow that integrates gene expression data, proteomics data and literature-based manual curation to model human metabolism within and between different types of cells. Transport reactions are used to account for the transfer of metabolites between models of different cell types via the interstitial fluid. We apply the method to create models of brain energy metabolism that recapitulate metabolic interactions between astrocytes and various neuron types relevant to Alzheimer's disease. Analysis of the models identifies genes and pathways that may explain observed experimental phenomena, including the differential effects of the disease on cell types and regions of the brain. Constraint-based modeling can thus contribute to the study and analysis of multicellular metabolic processes in the human tissue microenvironment and provide detailed mechanistic insight into high-throughput data analysis.

"Our current study demonstrates that the timing of information coming into a memory circuit - specifically, CA1 hippocampus - is critical for optimal encoding of new information," he continues. "When similar patterns of information are separated by at least an hour - a typical classroom session - there is a dramatically enhanced encoding of this info. The key challenge to realizing this discovery was actually linking electrical properties of the circuit, which is done by physiological recordings, to physical, morphological and anatomical properties of the circuit, which is done by high-resolution imaging of synapses before and after stimulation."

Sleep, or lack of it, can determine level of cognitive performance which is linked with accidents as well as increased risk of serious health problems. Links between cell energy levels, gene transcription and sleep rhythms may uncover answers to sleep disorders and the ill-effects of sleep deprivation.

Recent work in mice suggested that the immune system is involved in removing beta-amyloid, the main Alzheimer's-causing substance in the brain. Researchers have now shown for the first time that this may apply in humans

An overgrowth of bacteria in the gut has been definitively linked to Irritable Bowel Syndrome in the results of a new Cedars-Sinai study which used cultures from the small intestine. This is the first study to use this "gold standard" method of connecting bacteria to the cause of the disease that affects an estimated 30 million people in the United States.

Body area network (BAN), wireless body area network (WBAN) or body sensor network (BSN) are terms used to describe the application of wearable computing devices

Dutch researchers recently demonstrated a new type of wireless body area network, or BAN for short. A BAN essentially gives the human body its own IP address, and the new techniques demonstrated at IMEC based in Eindhoven incorporate a dongle that plugs into the SD card slot of a cellphone, enabling the streaming of data from the sensors to the cellphone in real time.

The biggest question for would-be cyborgs is: How are you going to power all those brain implants? And now it looks like some MIT engineers may have stumbled upon the answer. They have developed a fuel cell that can run on your brain's own glucose - a breakthrough that could result in powerful neural prosthetics that could restore and control a number of bodily functions.

Three films exploring the very thing that makes us human. Each episode features an extraordinary character who can do extraordinary things with their brain. Marc Yu is only 7 years old, but he already has a repertoire of over 15 classical piano pieces - some of them over 20 minutes long. Chess grand master Susan Polgar tells the story of how her father turned her and her sisters into chess prodigies. Autistic Savant George Widener stuns us with his superhuman calculating and memory skills. And prepare to be moved by Tommy McHugh - the Liverpool hardman who turned into an obsessive artist after surviving a stroke. We find out how they do it. Episodes included: Make Me A Genius, Accidental Genius, and Born Genius.

" Researchers found that eliminating a single enzyme from mice with aggressive symptoms of Alzheimer's drastically reduced the production of a protein closely linked to the disorder's progression."

"A new 3-D view of the body's response to infection - and the ability to identify proteins involved in the response - could point to novel biomarkers and therapeutic agents for infectious diseases. "

"These findings suggest that exercise stimulates SPARC secretion from muscle tissues and that SPARC inhibits colon tumorigenesis by increasing apoptosis"

$32 million to develop a technology system designed to mimic the functions of specific organ systems representing a broad spectrum of human tissues, including the circulatory, musculoskeletal and nervous systems.""

Fascinating insight into the complexity of the gymnastic vault at the olympics

"Ongoing e-learning initiatives focusing on healthcare education" Curated by Nabil Zary

A new project has created the first complete computational model of an actual organism. And this breakthrough represents a significant step forward in the field of artificial life - and the promise of developing entirely new organisms.