Tag Archives: Science

Is There a Link Between Depression and Guilt?

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It would seem that Sigmund Freud’s theories on depression have been proved right; guilt does play a role in depression, according to MRI scans depressed people respond more strongly to guilt. Dr Sigmund Freud said that depression was characterised by feelings of guilt or self-blame, which made it different from ‘normal’ sadness.

Researchers at the University of Manchester have done brain scans on people with a history of depression and found that the brain scans differed in the regions associated with guilt and knowledge of socially acceptable behaviour from individuals who never get depressed.

The study was published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

Lead researcher Dr Roland Zahn, of the University’s School of Psychological Sciences, said: ‘Our research provides the first brain mechanism that could explain the classical observation by Freud that depression is distinguished from normal sadness by proneness to exaggerated feelings of guilt or self-blame.

‘For the first time, we chart the regions of the brain that interact to link detailed knowledge about socially appropriate behaviour – the anterior temporal lobe – with feelings of guilt – the subgenual region of the brain – in people who are prone to depression.’

Dr Zahn, a MRC clinician scientist fellow, said: ‘The scans revealed that the people with a history of depression did not ‘couple’ the brain regions associated with guilt and knowledge of appropriate behaviour together as strongly as the never depressed control group do.

‘Interestingly, this ‘decoupling’ only occurs when people prone to depression feel guilty or blame themselves, but not when they feel angry or blame others. This could reflect a lack of access to details about what exactly was inappropriate about their behaviour when feeling guilty, thereby extending guilt to things they are not responsible for and feeling guilty for everything.’

The research team is now investigating whether the results from the study can be used to predict depression risk after remission of a previous episode.

Science meets Art at the Enlightenment Cafe

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An exciting and unique new theatrical project will be taking place from 31st May – 4th June in the vaults of the Old Vic Tunnels.

Presented by LAStheatre, the Enlightenment Café combines the beauty of science with the power and imagination of immersive performance in a place of exploration, where people from all walks of life can debate, play and laugh the night away.  Only the tedious will be off limits as The Enlightenment Café aims to provoke imagination and intrigue; scientists will demonstrate their art and artists will demonstrate their science.  Scientists in residence include Tim McInerny, Stuart Clarke and Alex Bellos.   This is an interactive adventure where new theories can be mooted as to why things are, how they got there and what will happen next. The Enlightenment Café will delve into topics ranging from astronomy to paleontology, from My Little Pony to zombies and from art to invention.

Doors to the Old Vic Tunnels will open every night at 7pm, and the evenings will be split into three sections: firstly, a period of immersive theatre and free exploration; secondly, stage pieces and panel discussions; and, finally, live music and entertainment. Each night will have a different theme and aesthetic but will all inspire, breaking away from the idea that science and facts can only be learnt in a lecture theatre or laboratory.

Times and tickets for all events at the Enlightenment Cafe can be found at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3487295595. Tickets are priced at £15 with a booking fee of £1.55.  For more information about LAStheatre visit www.lastheatre.com.

Leading scientists ask British public to measure their sleep

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· International survey findings to be discussed at The Times Cheltenham Science Festival

· What is sleep, why do we need it and how much of it do we really require?

Researchers from the universities of Oxford and Munich have called on the British public to contribute to an international survey looking at the quantity – and quality – of sleep amongst the population.

Professor Russell Foster, Chair of The Times Cheltenham Science Festival, and Professor Dr Till Roenneberg from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, who are both experts in chronobiology – the study of the circadian rhythms which govern our waking and sleeping patterns, and their interaction with daylight – will discuss the responses to the survey at the Festival in June 2012. The pair will discuss the regenerative powers of sleep as well as comparing and contrasting the sleep patterns of the UK respondents with their continental counterparts.

The survey takes just a few minutes to complete online, and asks questions relating to work schedule, differing sleep habits during the week and at the weekend, consumption of alcoholic and caffeinated drinks, exposure to cigarettes and the time taken to fall asleep each night.

So far, more than 65,000 people in Germany have taken Professor Dr Roenneberg’s simple online survey relating their sleeping habits, and the scientists are keen to capture more data relating to the British population.

Russell Foster, a professor of circadian neuroscience at Brasenose College, Oxford, and Chair of The Times Cheltenham Science Festival said, “We felt that the arrival of British Summer Time, with its lighter mornings and longer evenings – plus people perhaps feeling like they’ve ‘lost’ an hour’s sleep – was an excellent moment to get people thinking about the quality and quantity of sleep they get.

“With the help of this questionnaire, we aim to understand the underlying complexity of the biological clock by gathering a picture of everyday behaviour. We all know that individuals show distinct preferences for various activities over the course of a day. A simple example is the time at which an individual prefers to go to bed and get up. Collecting this information will help us understand how and why the biological clock ticks.”

Each participant will receive a personal profile which evaluates their chronotype, and compares their results to those of other participants. A person’s chronotype relates to their preference for mornings or evenings – those who are at their best at the crack of dawn are often described as ‘larks’, whereas people who brighten up in the evenings are known as ‘owls’.

Professor Dr Till Roenneberg, of the Munich Centre of Chronobiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, adds, “It will be particularly interesting to gather more information on British sleep patterns in order to compare chronotypes of people living in different geographical locations.

“This will enable us to consider factors such as longitude and latitude, which can make a difference to the amount of daylight to which people are exposed.”

People are encouraged to take the survey online.

Professor Russell Foster will be talking about the regenerative power of sleep at The Times Cheltenham Science Festival on Tuesday 12 June 2012 at 6:30pm.

Priority booking is open to Cheltenham Festivals Members from Monday 26th March, ahead of public booking from 2nd April. The full programme is available at www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/science

An Experiment With An Air Pump: Theatre Review

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I have seen many plays in my life, but none have so intertwined art and science as An Experiment With An Airpump. The play by Shelagh Stevenson is a murder mystery wrapped up in the morals of science.

The play was inspired by the famous painting by Derby’s Joseph Wright of a scientist demonstrating an experiment on the powers of oxygen. He puts a small bird in a bottle and closes the lid. The bird dies – apparently. He takes off the lid and the bird miraculously recovers.

The play is set in 1799 and in 1999 on New Years Eve. Tom, and his scientist wife, Ellen have to leave the house as they can no longer afford to live there. They employ a builder to do some maintenance work and they discover a body under the sink – the bones of a female who has been there for centuries. Ellen also grasps with the morality of taking a job that evolves working with pre-embryos.

The other family are from 1799. The play shows that if history does not repeat itself, it at least rhymes, with people rioting in the streets. It also shows how far women have come. In 1799, Holly Clark plays an oppressed wife who seeks solace in alcohol. In 1999, she is the scientist, doing groundbreaking work, and funding her unemployed husband.

The play has very high production values. The set is amazing and looks expensive. The characters costumes are spot on.

There is a cast of seven in total and most actors play two parts. Mason Kayne plays Armstrong, a medical student, in 1799 and the Geordie builder in 1999. Mason is a stunningly talented young actor. He peals away the layers of Armstrong until he reveals his cold heart. A stunning tour-de-force. The only real character is Roget – who was the man who devised the thesaurus.
This play is well acted, well directed and well written. A marvellous play that is long, but feels short. An intellectual triumph and an absolute must-see.

By Shelagh Stephenson

Directed by Liisa Smith
Produced by Giant Olive Theatre

Cast:
Joseph Fenwick / Tom – Steven Lello
Susannah Fenwick / Ellen – Holly Clark
Harriet Fenwick / Kate – Rae Brogan
Maria Fenwick – Billie Fulford-Brown
Isobel Bridie – Olivia Hunter
Peter Mark Roget – Noah James
Thomas Armstrong / Phil – Mason Kayne

Music composed by: Angus Moncrieff
Costume & set: Cara Newman
Lighting Design: Ciaran Cunningham
Stage Manager: Nathalie Gunzle
Image Design: Merilyn Puss
Photography: Alexander Ford


http://www.giantolive.com/anexperimentwithanairpump.html

NASA's iPad App Beams Science Straight to Users

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Software and media specialists at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., today released a new iPad app — the NASA Visualization Explorer — that allows users to easily interact with extraordinary images, video, and information about NASA’s latest Earth science research.

Cutting-edge visualization has long been a staple of NASA Earth science and in particular the Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) at Goddard Space Flight Center. The iPad presented NASA a new and easily accessible way to put stunning and beautiful Earth science visualizations directly in people’s hands.

The app’s science features will include high-resolution movies and stills and short written stories to put all the pieces in context. Most of the movies are simply real satellite data, visualized. Other features will include interviews with scientists or imagery from supercomputer modeling efforts. The app includes social networking interfaces, including links to Facebook and Twitter, for easy sharing of stories.

The application is free to the public and available from the App Store via iTunes.

The app editorial team plans to develop two new science features per week. After publishing an initial batch of six features with the launch, new features will publish to the app on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In the future the app could include occasional stories about the Sun, the other planets in our Solar System, and exotic objects far out in the cosmos.

The Goddard team designed the application essentially as a mobile multimedia magazine. “Its one-of-a-kind content is geared to the general public, students, educators — “anyone interested in the natural world,” said Michael Starobin, a senior producer at Goddard Space Flight Center who spearheaded the app’s editorial direction. “The app will explore stories of climate change, Earth’s dynamic systems, plant life on land and in the oceans — all of the small and large stories captured in data by NASA satellites and then visualized.”

“Science should be accessible to everyone, and visualization reveals the meaning and value of the often intangible, but essential, data delivered by NASA’s research efforts,” Starobin said. “Data visualization makes information immediately visual and understandable when it otherwise might go unnoticed, and the app makes it easy to explore in an engaging, easy-to-consume, thoroughly modern style.”

“The NASA visualization app is the latest step in a rich tradition of content production and application development,” added Project Manager Helen-Nicole Kostis. “With its release, I’m inviting everyone on a journey of scientific knowledge and visual wonder.”

Work began on the NASA Visualization Explorer shortly after Apple released its electronic tablet in April 2010. “We just knew immediately that the iPad provided the perfect platform to showcase NASA science,” said Christopher Smith, the principal designer of the application’s user interface.

Administrators of Goddard’s Inclusive Innovation Program agreed. The pilot program, which Goddard management rolled out last year to support ideas that would advance non-science and non-engineering functions and services, awarded seed funding to the team to develop the concept. “Our evaluation process was rigorous,” said Goddard Chief Technologist Peter Hughes, who administered the program for the center. “This proposal stood out for its immediate utility and potential impact.”

With the one-year funding in hand, the three principal creators assembled a multidisciplinary team of experts from the center’s SVS, one of the nation’s premiere data visualization labs, and the center’s Television and Multimedia Department, which has earned a reputation as one of the federal government’s best media-production departments. “Through our team’s unique talents, I believe we’ve created an application that is worthy of the NASA badge,” Starobin said.

“The heart of NASA data visualization beats at SVS,” Kostis added. “This is where science, data, and storytelling come together.”

To download the app, go to:

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/nasaviz/index.html

After Hours – Science Uncovered. Natural History Museum, London

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24 September 2010, 16.00–22.00

The Natural History Museum is throwing open the laboratory door to the public and giving visitors special, one-night-only access to a hidden world in a special event, After Hours – Science Uncovered.

Behind the scenes of the Natural History Museum, more than 300 scientists use the world-class collections to research global problems such as disease, climate change and threats to biodiversity. After Hours – Science Uncovered will satisfy your curiosity as you get up close and personal with cutting-edge science and the people that make it happen. Explore fascinating topics ranging from the detective work of the forensics team to revolutionary new techniques for tracking meteorites.

Join a guided tour of the Dinosaurs gallery or hidden collections spaces, bring along mystery objects to be identified by experts, or simply unwind with a Friday night drink while mingling with Museum scientists in the iconic surroundings of the Grade I listed building.

Highlights include:

· Science Bar – a bar with a difference. Choose from a menu of hot topics such as the role of women in science or donating your body for research to discuss with Museum experts over a cocktail or two.

· Guided tours – soak up the atmosphere of the Museum at night with exclusive tours lead by top experts, including torch-lit tours of the Dinosaurs gallery. Spaces are limited, so come early to sign up and ensure a place on a tour.

· Hands-On Science – get up close and personal with Museum scientists as they showcase their research into everything from the toxicity of botox to species extinction. There will be the chance to handle real specimens and take part in demonstrations.

· Nature Live – get fully immersed in the natural world in the state-of-the-art Attenborough Studio. Interactive events using cutting-edge technologies will recreate a crime scene investigation or even link the audience to scientists working in the field.

· Mystery finds – from a shell on the local beach to a spider discovered in the bath, bring in unidentified natural history finds. It’s a unique chance to quiz Museum experts to find out more.

After Hours – Science Uncovered is part of European Researchers Nights and is the first time that London has taken part in the Europe-wide festival of science. Across Europe over 100 cities will hold similar events showing how exciting and vital research is to our lives.

Visitor information:

Dates and times: 24 September 2010
16.00–22.00

Admission: free

Visitor enquiries: Monday–Friday 020 7942 5000
Saturday–Sunday 020 7942 5011

Nearest tube: South Kensington

Website: www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/coming-soon/index.html

Researchers create the first synthetic self-replicating living cell

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Researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute published results yesterday describing the successful construction of the first self-replicating, synthetic bacterial cell. They’ve christened it Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 (I like to call it Mike). Working from that idea that “In essence, scientists are digitizing biology by converting the A, C, T, and G’s of the chemical makeup of DNA into 1’s and 0’s in a computer. But can one reverse the process and start with 1’s and 0’s in a computer to define the characteristics of a living cell?”; Venter calls it ‘the first self-replicating species we’ve had on the planet whose parent is a computer’.

The scientific team headed by Drs. Craig Venter, Hamilton Smith and Clyde Hutchison spent 15 years working on the first synthetic bacterial cell. Always conscious that the work they were doing was monumental; throughout the course of this work, the team contemplated, discussed, and engaged in outside review of the ethical and societal implications of their work. JCVI say “The ability to routinely write the software of life will usher in a new era in science, and with it, new products and applications such as advanced biofuels, clean water technology, and new vaccines and medicines.”

The genomes were designed on the computer, chemically made in the laboratory and transplanted into a recipient cell to produce a new self-replicating cell controlled only by the synthetic genome.The team have also designed and inserted what they’ve called watermarkes into the cell that don’t create any proteins but contain a hidden code. These are specifically designed segments of DNA that use the “alphabet” of genes and proteins that enable the researcher to spell out words and phrases. The watermarks are an essential means to prove that the genome is synthetic and not native, and to identify the laboratory of origin. Encoded in the watermarks is a new DNA code for writing words, sentences and numbers. In addition to the new code there is a web address to send emails to if you can successfully decode the new code, the names of 46 authors and other key contributors and three quotations: “TO LIVE, TO ERR, TO FALL, TO TRIUMPH, TO RECREATE LIFE OUT OF LIFE.” – JAMES JOYCE; “SEE THINGS NOT AS THEY ARE, BUT AS THEY MIGHT BE.”-A quote from the book, “American Prometheus”; “WHAT I CANNOT BUILD, I CANNOT UNDERSTAND.” – RICHARD FEYNMAN.

Scanning electron micrographs of M. mycoides JCVI-syn1

Incase you’re worrying that the new cell’s going to escape into the outside world JCVI say that “researchers will be able to engineer synthetic bacterial cells so they cannot live outside of the lab or other production environments. This is done by, for example, ensuring that these organisms have built in dependencies for certain nutrients without which they cannot survive. They can also be engineered with so called “suicide genes” that kick in to prevent the organism from living outside of the lab or environment in which they were grown. ”

The potential for this research and the next steps for JVCI’s researchers are exciting. “The team is now ready to build more complex organisms with useful properties.  For example, many, including scientists at SGI, are already using available sequencing information to engineer cells that can produce energy, pharmaceuticals, and industrial compounds, and sequester carbon dioxide.”

Venter maintains that it’s not a second genesis as they’ve not created life “from scratch” but as they’ve used an existing cell; they’ve created a new species. This new cell has around 1 million base pairs into a coherent genome.  By comparison, the human genome contains more than 3 billion pairs, so don’t don’t worry about synthetic mammals any time soon.

[JCVI]

Is it Snake Oil? – Interactive Infographic

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It’s hard to know what’s good and what’s guff, should you be taking vitamin supplements? Will my anti-oxident rosehip cranberry echinacia lavender infusion cure my indecision or should I plump for a green tea? Will that weight loss suppliment advertised on Facebook actually work? Afterall, it is on Facebook, so it must be true?! There’s so much confusing and conflicting information what we really need is someone to take all the evidence and put it into some sort of pretty picture.
If there’s one thing the people behind Information is Beatiful have proved that interactive graphics definately improve my attention span.
The creators have this to say about the image and information they used: “This image is a “balloon race”. The higher a bubble, the greater the evidence for its effectiveness. But the supplements are only effective for the conditions listed inside the bubble. We only considered large, human, randomized placebo-controlled trials in our data scrape – wherever possible. No animal trials. No cell studies..”
This visualisation generates itself from this Google Doc. So when new research comes out, they should be able to quickly update the data and regenerate the image. The spreadsheet also references the source of the research; if you’re interested in that sort of thing.