http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (Phys.org) —There has been a lot of talk recently about the possibility of building what has come to be known as a time crystal. In February 2012, Frank Wilczek originally proposed the idea that under certain conditions, physical structures can move in a repeating pattern without expending any energy. Last June, a group of researchers at Berkeley proposed a time crystal could be realized as a persistently rotating ring of charged atoms. Unfortunately a problem with that approach was pointed out by Patrick Bruno, who noted that to be a time crystal, an object must exhibit perpetual motion in its lowest energy state—the ground state. Commenting in Physical Review Letters in March, Bruno showed that the particular example described by Wilczek was actually one of a system in an excited state, and therefore not a time crystal. Taking advantage of recent breakthroughs in the construction of low noise ion traps, Berkeley researchers now plan to build an ion trap that will satisfy the critics. http://phys.org/news286813095.html Physics Fri, 03 May 2013 15:18:34 EST news286813095 (Phys.org) —A dye-based imaging technique known as two-photon microscopy can produce pictures of active neural structures in much finer detail than functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, but it requires powerful and expensive lasers. Now, a research team at the University of Pennsylvania has developed a new kind of dye that could reduce the cost of the technique by several orders of magnitude. http://phys.org/news285746921.html Nanotechnology Sun, 21 Apr 2013 07:09:15 EST news285746921 A team of scientists from Temple University School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania has moved another step closer to solving a decades-long mystery of how the all-important flow of calcium into the cell's power source, the mitochondria, is controlled. http://phys.org/news273067336.html Biology Sun, 25 Nov 2012 13:00:01 EST news273067336 When animals and plants are exposed to influences such as bacterial attack, odour and cold, calcium ions flow into the cells. The calcium provides the cells with a signal about what is going on outside, but as high concentrations of calcium are toxic to the cells, it must be quickly pumped out again. Researchers from the Danish National Research Foundation's PUMPkin Centre at both the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University have now shown that calcium pumps in the cell's outer membrane adjust the pump speed very accurately to the calcium concentration. These findings have just been published in the journal Nature. http://phys.org/news270019498.html Biology Sun, 21 Oct 2012 13:00:13 EST news270019498 Reef-building coral communities in the Great Barrier Reef-the world's largest coral reef-may now be calcifying at only about half the rate that they did during the 1970s, although live coral cover may not have changed over the past 40 years, a new study finds. In recent decades, coral reefs around the world, home to large numbers of fish and other marine species, have been threatened by human activities such as pollution, overfishing, global warming, and ocean acidification; the latter affects ambient water chemistry and availability of calcium ions, which are critical for coral communities to calcify, build, and maintain reefs. http://phys.org/news265639273.html Space & Earth Fri, 31 Aug 2012 14:30:01 EST news265639273 A team of investigators from UC Davis and Peking University have discovered a mechanism that may explain how alpha hydroxyl acids (AHAs) -- the key ingredient in cosmetic chemical peels and wrinkle-reducing creams -- work to enhance skin appearance. An understanding of the underlying process may lead to better cosmetic formulations as well as have medical applications. http://phys.org/news264089819.html Chemistry Mon, 13 Aug 2012 16:10:02 EST news264089819 Excitation of neurons depends on the selected influx of certain ions, namely sodium, calcium and potassium through specific channels. Obviously, these channels were crucial for the evolution of nervous systems in animals. How such channels could have evolved their selectivity has been a puzzle until now. Yehu Moran and Ulrich Technau from the University of Vienna together with Scientists from Tel Aviv University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (USA) have now revealed that voltage-gated sodium channels, which are responsible for neuronal signaling in the nerves of animals, evolved twice in higher and lower animals. These results were published in Cell Reports. http://phys.org/news262526291.html Biology Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:58:31 EST news262526291 Working with researchers in the US and Germany, Johannes Messinger at Umea University (Sweden) is opening new avenues to understand photosynthesis and create artificial photosynthesis. Using x-ray analysis, they have managed to see the structure of molecules under conditions where photosynthesis can occur, and they have also found that calcium plays a critical role in decomposing water. http://phys.org/news258043471.html Chemistry Mon, 04 Jun 2012 15:44:40 EST news258043471 The speed at which the calcium concentration in the cell changes controls the swimming behavior of sperm. They can calculate the calcium dynamics and react accordingly. http://phys.org/news250338750.html Biology Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:32:44 EST news250338750 Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine researchers have identified a new and unusual role for a key player in the human immune system. A protein initially believed to regulate one routine function within the cell has proven vital for another critical step in the activation of the immune system. http://phys.org/news246954877.html Chemistry Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:43:27 EST news246954877 A discovery in fruit flies may be able to tell us more about how animals, including humans, sense potentially dangerous discomforts. http://phys.org/news243176703.html Biology Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:05:23 EST news243176703 A University of Alberta-led research team has dramatically expanded the palette of fluorescent highlighters that can be used to track the movement of messengers inside of single cells. http://phys.org/news234709181.html Biology Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:00:01 EST news234709181 (Medical Xpress) -- With a combination of synthetic biology and optogenetics, researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology published a paper in Science outlining their new technique which enables certain genes to be turned on simply by the switch of a light. http://phys.org/news228145292.html Biology Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:41:52 EST news228145292 Hereditary diseases such as epilepsy or various coordination disorders may be caused by changes in nerve cells of the cerebellum, which do not set in until after birth. This is reported by Bochum's neuroscientists in the Journal of Neuroscience. http://phys.org/news219664077.html Medicine & Health Fri, 18 Mar 2011 10:48:08 EST news219664077 A team of researchers at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia (IGC), Portugal, discovered that pollen, the organ that contains the plant male gametes, communicate with the pistil, their female counterpart, using a mechanism commonly observed in the nervous system of animals. This study not only reveals a new mechanism which underlies reproduction in plants, but also opens an exciting new avenue in the study of how cell-cell communication is conserved between animals and plants. The research is to be published this week in Science Express. http://phys.org/news219591239.html Biology Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:34:15 EST news219591239 Neuroscientists have long suspected that abnormal calcium signaling and accumulation of misfolded proteins cause an intracellular membrane-bound organelle called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to trigger the abnormal death of cells implicated in many neurodegenerative diseases. However, the underlying mechanisms have proved elusive. http://phys.org/news217851000.html Medicine & Health Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:10:17 EST news217851000 The transport of ions is essential for the routine maintenance of the body. For this reason cells contain specialized enzymes that act as pumps that help ions to move around and pass through boundaries. http://phys.org/news217258036.html Biology Fri, 18 Feb 2011 13:27:29 EST news217258036 Calcium regulates many critical processes within the body, including muscle contraction, the heartbeat, and the release of hormones. But too much calcium can be a bad thing. In excess, it can lead to a host of diseases, such as severe muscle weakness, a fatal reaction to anesthesia or sudden cardiac death. http://phys.org/news208097012.html Medicine & Health Thu, 04 Nov 2010 13:43:39 EST news208097012 Cascades of genetic signals determine which neurotransmitter a brain cell will ultimately use to communicate with other cells. Now a pair of reports from biologists at the University of California, San Diego, have shown for the first time that electrical activity in these developing neurons can alter their chemical fate—and change an animal's behavior—by tweaking this genetic program. http://phys.org/news199470824.html Medicine & Health Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:00:01 EST news199470824 Rising from the top surface of each of the specialized receptor cells in our inner ears is a bundle of sensory cilia that responds to the movement of sound. As sensitive as they are fragile, these cilia can move to wisps of sound no larger than a molecule -- but can shear at sounds that are larger than life. http://phys.org/news190693136.html Medicine & Health Sat, 17 Apr 2010 03:19:19 EST news190693136 Skin and hair follicles are constantly renewed in the body, maintained by specialized stem cells. New research from Children's Hospital Boston identifies a small cellular channel that regulates skin and hair growth and that could be targeted with small-molecule drugs, potentially treating variety of skin conditions, as well as thinning hair or unwanted hair growth. Findings appear in the April 16 issue of Cell. http://phys.org/news190556119.html Medicine & Health Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:15:41 EST news190556119 (PhysOrg.com) -- Some current therapies being investigated for Alzheimer's disease may cause further neural degeneration and cell death, according to a breakthrough discovery by UC San Diego researchers. http://phys.org/news189799970.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:13:18 EST news189799970 Some current therapies being investigated for Alzheimer's disease may cause further neural degeneration and cell death, according to a breakthrough discovery by UC San Diego researchers. http://phys.org/news189360019.html Medicine & Health Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:00:54 EST news189360019 At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Marcos Frank, PhD, associate professor of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, will present information on early brain development and the importance of sleep during early life when the brain is rapidly maturing and highly changeable. http://phys.org/news185947540.html Medicine & Health Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:30:02 EST news185947540 Neurotoxins from cone snails and spiders help neurobiologists Sebastian Auer, Annika S. Stürzebecher and Dr. Ines Ibañez-Tallon of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, to investigate the function of ion channels in neurons. http://phys.org/news185020330.html Chemistry Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:50:01 EST news185020330 Cells rely on a range of signaling systems to communicate with each other and to control their own internal workings. Scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Hamburg, Germany, have now found a way to hack into a vital communications system, raising the possibility of developing new drugs to tackle disorders like neurodegeneration, cancer and cardiovascular disease. In a study published today in Science Signaling, they have pieced together the first snapshot of what two of the system's components look like while interacting. http://phys.org/news183723675.html Chemistry Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:10:09 EST news183723675 Epileptic seizures are the most dramatic and prominent aspect of the "alcohol withdrawal syndrome" that occurs when a person abruptly stops a long-term or chronic drinking habit. Researchers have shown that the flow of calcium ions into brain cells via voltage-gated calcium channels plays an important role in the generation of alcohol withdrawal seizures, because blocking this flow suppresses these seizures. But do the changes in calcium currents contribute to alcohol withdrawal seizures or are they a consequence of the seizures? http://phys.org/news175017259.html Medicine & Health Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:20:01 EST news175017259 University of Utah School of Medicine researchers and their colleagues at University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center have found strong evidence that abnormal calcium signaling in neurons may play an important role in the development of spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2), a disorder causing progressive loss of coordination, speech difficulty, and abnormal eye movements. Their findings are published in the July 27, 2009 issue of Journal of Neuroscience. http://phys.org/news167488840.html Medicine & Health Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:41:02 EST news167488840 Pancreatitis is often a fatal condition, in which the pancreas digests itself and surrounding tissue. Scientists have previously found that alcohol can trigger the condition by combining with fatty acids in the pancreas, which leads to an excessive release of stored calcium ions. Once calcium ions enter cell fluid in the pancreas it activates digestive enzymes and damages the cells. http://phys.org/news165489834.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:40:03 EST news165489834 A discovery made by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine while studying mice may help explain how some people without a genetic predisposition to epilepsy can develop the disorder. http://phys.org/news159694944.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:42:59 EST news159694944