In 1915, a thirty-six year old Albert Einstein had just finished completing the two-page masterpiece that would revolutionize modern physics and catapult the struggling physicist into international fame and glory – the theory of general relativity. Before it was published though, Einstein paused for a moment and wrote a most heartfelt and considerate letter to his then 11-year old son Hans Albert, who was living with his estranged mother and little brother, Eduard “Tete” Einstein, in Vienna.

The letter (featured below), like most of Einstein’s correspondence, shines of fatherly wisdom and speaks of something that most people should always consider: how to learn.

My dear Albert,

Yesterday I received your dear letter and was very happy with it. I was already afraid you wouldn’t write to me at all any more. You told me when I was in Zurich, that it is awkward for you when I come to Zurich. Therefore I think it is better if we get together in a different place, where nobody will interfere with our comfort. I will in any case urge that each year we spend a whole month together, so that you see that you have a father who is fond of you and who loves you. You can also learn many good and beautiful things from me, something another cannot as easily offer you. What I have achieved through such a lot of strenuous work shall not only be there for strangers but especially for my own boys. These days I have completed one of the most beautiful works of my life, when you are bigger, I will tell you about it.

I am very pleased that you find joy with the piano. This and carpentry are in my opinion for your age the best pursuits, better even than school. Because those are things which fit a young person such as you very well. Mainly play the things on the piano which please you, even if the teacher does not assign those. That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes. I am sometimes so wrapped up in my work that I forget about the noon meal. . . .

Be with Tete kissed by your

Papa.

Regards to Mama.

Article via brainpickings.org, a website where you can also conveniently read another brilliant article: “how to find your purpose and do what you love”.

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• 2020: humans will be able to remotely robots using our brains, using them like a sort of avatar.
• 2025: it will be possible to transplant the human brain into a robotic life-support system, essentially making the brain the only biological component.
• 2045: the brain itself is no longer needed, and all cortex functions, memories, personality and so on are transferred on a computer, thus avoiding biological degradation, leaving way for immortality.

Considering the Russian tycoon spearheading this initiative is only 32, looking at the timetable, it looks as if Dmitry Itskov – who made a fortunate out of internet media business – is so hopelessly afraid of death that he wishes to secure longevity through any means. Itskov says, however, that he tries to eliminate his “selfishness” day by day, and has spent about $3 million promoting his vision. He organized the first conference on the theme in Russia last year.

Motivation aside, what are the implications of such an endeavor and, maybe equally as important, is such a thing possible?

Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro’s Geminoid,takes the stage during the Global Future 2045 Congress, Saturday, June 15, 2013 at Lincoln Center in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

During our lifetimes or by Itskov’s proposed deadline for 2045, chances are extremely dim for something as extreme as this to be possible. Yet numerous scientists are intrigued by the possibilities. Hiroshi Ishiguro, a renowned Japanese robotics scientist, is one such scientist who also attended the conference as a speaker. At the gathering in Manhattan, Ishiguro made himself quite the entrance when  a life-size, like-like robot representation of himself, which he calls a “Geminoid” took the stage. The robot moved his lips, nodded and moved its eyes while a hidden loudspeaker played up Ishiguro’s voice. One could be easily fooled to think that the robot was actually Ishiguro, were it not for some elements that gave it away (like the stiff posture).

This robot is already put to good use by Ishiguro back home in Japan, which he uses to give remote lectures to his students. He controls it through the Internet, and sees his students through a webcam, all without having to leave the comfort of his research lab hours away from the University. At the same time, he’s offering his students an avatar representation of himself with which they can relate and follow as if he were present there in flesh and bone… almost at least.

In a way, Ishiguro’s robot-avatar is one of the many projects currently in development that fits the bill with Itskov’s audacious plan, along with other work pertaining to mind-control prosthetic. Martine A. Rothblatt, a speaker at the conference said that people used to think that organ transplant was insane and now it is commonplace. She believes that it is likely that Itskov’s grand ideas will spark many small start-ups who will try to capitalize on growing technology and current momentum. Still, the brain is more complex than a kidney for instance – far more complex.

Currently, Itskov is trying to promote his vision as much as possible and even intends on creating a movement, involving governments and the United Nations, to work toward a common goal.  Naturally, some ethical discussions arise. How many of you would be ready to renounce your fragile and ephemeral bodies for the chance of immortality…boxed inside a computer chip?

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The short answer would be yes, and a fantastic project initiated by Gerhard Sonnert, a research associate at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, allows users vising the website to literally hear the star chants. Sonnert worked closely with Wanda Diaz-Merced, a postdoctoral student at the University of Glasgow, who unfortunately lost her sight while she was still in her 20s. Diaz-Merced didn’t let this stop her from continuing to study physics, using her other senses.

It all started when she heard the distinct bleeps and twitches of a signal from a radio telescope. This inspired her to work on a software called xSonify, which allows users to present numerical data as sound and use pitch, volume, or rhythm to distinguish between different data values. In 2011, Diaz-Merced worked with data from  NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and plugged in data into her software from an EX Hydrae — a binary system consisting of a normal star and a white dwarf.  In this system, the X-ray brightness fluctuates as the white dwarf consumes gas from its companion.

A screenshot from X-Sonify, a sonification tool developed by NASA

The resulting sounds were interesting, but far from melodic. A quick listen would be enough for almost anyone to label them as annoying. Luckily, Sonnert sensed some magic in these bland tunes and invited a musician friend of his, Volkmar Studtrucker, to play with their sonified star data. With the  EX Hydrae material, Volkmar created nine musical pieces, in a variety of musical styles (blues, jazz, and more), which they played and recorded in a trio (Volkmar Studtrucker, piano; Gerhard Sonnert, bass; and Hans-Peter Albrecht, drums).

Check out the sidebar on this page to sample the songs. Each song has the original sound data from the star system. Once again, science and art intertwine. They also have and always will, but this is a more explicit example that hopefully will enlighten some.

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Through out her career, Farah has mainly specialized in neuroscience fields related to vision and memory, however she has always been intrigued by how social class affects brain development. As the developed world is facing an ever discrepant segregation of classes, the topic is worthy of consideration.

“I actually became pretty obsessed with social class, this major dimension of variation in the human race and certainly in American society,” Farah said.

“We’re so segregated by class, we don’t even realize we’re segregated because we don’t even know what life is like just two miles north of here,” she said.

The stress of poverty on the brain

This image, compiled using data from multiple researchers, shows how cortical thickness varies across species. In humans, on the right, there are noticeable changes as a person ages.

As sociological studies have corroborated, it seemed to Farah that child-rearing and children’s early experience was very different depending on social class.

Poor children don’t get as much exposure to language as their wealthier counterparts, research has found, and they tend to get more negative feedback. What they do hear is not as grammatically complex, with a narrower range of vocabulary. There is less understanding of how children develop and what they need for cognitive development, Farah said.

Stress seems to also play a major role. Parents of low-income are more predisposed to subject their children to a stressful environment, since they themselves are stressed at their own term by the uncertainties of meeting means, bad neighborhoods, crowding and so on. Stressed parents are less patient and affectionate, further stressing their children, according to Farah.

A recent study published in the journal PLoS One seems to be very revealing in this respect, involving a group African American adolescents who came from households of low socioeconomic status. When the participants were age 4, their parents’ responsivity (warmth and supportiveness) was evaluated, then some 11 to 14 years later, the now adolescents were subjects to a stress test. The participants had to hold a talk in front of a unfriendly audience.

After the test was over, the participants had their saliva sampled to measure cortisol – the stress hormone. Researchers found that cortisol reactivity was related to parental responsivity, and the less parental responsivity, the less of a normal stress response the volunteers had.

“You might say, ‘Well, of course life is more stressful in lower socioeconomic strata,’ ” she said. “But the degree of magnitude of the stress that they live with is just unbelievable.”

The idea that stress impairs brain development is thus born, but an even bigger question is beckoned – would this damage be permanent? It is unknown whether that stunting can be reversed, but you shouldn’t assume that it’s unchangeable, Farah said.

“If you’re interested in child policy and stuff, the important bottom line is: You never want to say, ‘Oh, damaged goods, so there’s nothing we can do now,’ ” she said.

The study

Along with Brian Avants, assistant professor of radiology, Farah followed 53 children who came from low socioeconomic status from birth through adolescence and performed brain imaging. The researchers performed their evaluation with two scales in mind: environmental stimulation (“child has toys that teach color” at age 4, and “child has access to at least 10 appropriate books” at age 8 etc) and parental stimulation (parent holds child close 10-15 minutes per day” at age 4).

The researchers wanted to see whether they could predict the thickness of cortisone based on these two major social factors. Greater cortical thickness in childhood is associated with poor outcomes such as autism, Avants explained. Later in adolescence, relatively reduced cortical thickness is linked to higher IQ and other mental processes.

From this study, Farah and colleagues suggested that environmental stimulation at age 4 predicts cortical thickness in the late teenage years, but parental nurturing did not appear to be linked.

Their work has yet to be published, and the final conclusions will be very interesting to follow when the time comes. Farah and colleagues call for awareness, in the meantime. There are far fewer children with autism than there are poor children in the United States, for example, but autism as a condition gets more attention from the science community than the neurological implications of poverty, the authors write.

Farah presented the study at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in November.

source

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A study conducted on mice showed that the chemical signal that triggers stem cells to develop into new nail tissue also attracts nerves that promote bone and nerve regeneration. The study suggests that nail stem cells could be used to develop new regeneration treatments for amputees.

Mice are pretty similar to humans in thhis regard – in both species, regenerating a finger starts with regenerating the nail. But whether the amputated portion of the digit actually takes place depends on exactly where the amputation occurs – if the stem cells in the nails are amputated as well, then no regeneration takes place. But if a small portion of the nail still remains in place, then it does regenerate. To understand exactly why these stem cells are so important, researchers turned to mice.

The two unfortunate groups of mice were separated into two groups – one control group, and one which was treated with a drug that made them unable to make the signals for new nail cells to develop. The second group was unable to regenerate, while the first one did this just fine, in time. When the signal was replenished, the second group resumed regeneration.

Limb regeneration is a very interesting field for biologists at the moment; a vast number of animals can regenerate lost limbs, most notably amphibians – aquatic salamanders can regenerate complete limbs, and even parts of their heart, by a process which involves their immune system. By studying species which are close to us and understanding the mechanism through which they regenerate, we could some day apply the same techniques to humans.

Via Discovery

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This is the first time, with any material, that magnetization was swtiched on and off, instead of on and then reversed – which makes the prospects even more intriguing.

Modern society is so dependent on magnetic materials we can’t even imagine the world without them. Everything we do depends on them – be it hard disks, memory chips, or airplane navigation. When it comes to graphene, its magnetism is a little unconventional – whenever atoms are removed from its lattice, microscopic holes called vacancies appear – the physicists from Manchester have shown that electrons condense around these holes into small electronic clouds; each of these clouds behaves like a microscopic magnet carrying one unit of magnetism, spin. Dr Irina Grigorieva and her team have shown how to turn this magnetism on and off.

“This breakthrough allows us to work towards transistor-like devices in which information is written down by switching graphene between its magnetic and non-magnetic states. These states can be read out either in the conventional manner by pushing an electric current through or, even better, by using a spin flow. Such transistors have been a holy grail of spintronics.”

Dr Rahul Nair, who was in charge of the experimental effort, explained why this is such a big deal:

“Previously, one could only change a direction in which a magnet is magnetized from north to south. Now we can switch on and off the magnetism entirely. Graphene already attracts interest in terms of spintronics applications, and I hope that the latest discovery will make it a frontrunner.”

Nobel Laureate and co-author of the paper Professor Andre Geim, who discovered graphene as a material concluded there is much reason for optimism:

“I wonder how many more surprises graphene keeps in store. This one has come out of the blue. We have to wait and see for a few years but the switchable magnetism may lead to an impact exceeding most optimistic expectations.”

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With this in mind, the local government recently implemented a program which aims to sequence the genome of all its citizens, or at least all of them who agree.  So far,  some 30,000 citizens — about three-fifths of the total population — have already submitted blood samples to its new Genetic Biobank. According to officials, the project doesn’t have an immediate goal in mind, however armed with such a complete database, whenever scientists have a better understanding of how the genetic disorders affecting Faroese work, they can then quickly summon citizens most at risk to the hospital to commence treatment.

For instance, ever growing cases of  carnitine transporter deficiency (CTD) are reported. The disease prevents the body from maintaining adequate levels of carnitine, which plays a critical role in metabolism. The disease most often is fatal, and the largest concentration of cases are found in the Faroe Islands, hundreds of times higher than in neighboring regions.

Last year, the country’s Ministry of Health launched an extensive program aiming  to sequence the genome of every citizen who wants it, focusing most on those with CTD, along with other conditions, such as schizophrenia, cystic fibrosis and diabetes.

“I don’t call it inbreeding, but line breeding,” says Gudrid Andorsdottir, who runs the biobank. “There is the implication that you are strengthening some factors, rather than inbreeding, which is a more negative word.”

The local government takes this very seriously and currently has one of the most extensive genetic records in the world.  The Genetic Biobank has finished digitizing the past 200 years of genealogical histories, and when combined with an almost complete population genome sequence, the country might become in the future one of the first at the forefront of the medicine of the future – a future in which every citizen has his own extremely personalized treatment, with the right dosage and medication calculated to extreme precision for maximum efficiency.

Indeed, this could save countless lives, but this also means that the government has or will have at least access to the DNA of every individual in the country. In a paranoia ridden world, especially considering recent whistle-blowing in the US that alleges a massive internet spying program in the US, this might not be the right precedent to set. If successful, Faroe Islands might be the pilot program that can spur other countries to apply similar methods. Then again, we’re speaking about a country made out of 18 tiny islands, and tiny as it is the program has already gobbled $50 million and will require hundreds of millions more of funding to decipher the meanings of the genomes. It will certainly not be just as easy for other countries in the world.

via Discover

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The medieval remains were taken from graves in the UK, Denmark and Sweden

The first, rather intriguing discovery was the fact that the medieval Crusades (religiously motivated campaigns conducted between the 11th and 16th centuries by the Christians, mostly against muslims, but also agains pagans, heretics, and others) helped spread leprosy.

In medieval times, a sufferer of leprosy was a pariah – cast away into quarantined colonies. Then as now, there was a social stigma with having the disease, but the disease can be cured if discovered quickly; if not, the lesions can leave the sufferers crippled and/or deformed.

The DNA comparison showed that the disease spread by the crusaders is pretty much the same as the one present in the Middle East now. It is still not clear if the disease originated in Europe and was brought eastwards by the crusaders, of if it originated there, and they brought it on their way back.

“This skeleton can only tell us it was present in Asia around 4,000 years ago, but we do not know where the origin of the disease is,” Prof Krause explained.

Another strain, similar to the medieval one, is found in the Americas. This is definitely not something that originated there, and likely, not something which was brought by the first settlers – but rather something that Europeans brought along when they were colonizing the continents.

“One really surprising finding was that the DNA was so well preserved, better than any ancient DNA I have ever studied,” he said. “This opens up the possibility to study the evolution of the disease in much older remains, to understand how it evolved and adapted to humans.”

There is a strong case that the disease developed in Europe, however. Some 95% of all population has already developed natural immunity to disease, while the people from the middle east are lagging behind. Still, global leprosy remains a threat, with over 225.000 cases registered annually.

“The bacterium is still pathogenic, the same way it was 1,000 years ago, but our social conditions have changed and we have much better medical treatment. But at the same time, it’s still a very prevalent disease,” said Prof Krause.

What’s interesting is that the bubonic plague might have actually played a part in eliminating it – when the pandemic hit, wiping out almost a third of all European popullation, it struck first in people suffering from leprosy.

“It’s been proposed that [bubonic plague ("Black Death")] killed off a large part of the European population, including those suffering from leprosy. One of the interesting things about this paper is that the medieval and current strains are the same, whereas leprosy disappeared fairly rapidly from Europe. It’s clear that leprosy has created a strong selective pressure on the immune system. The European Caucasian populations have acquired resistance to leprosy, they have certain characteristic mutations in genes that make them less susceptible,” Prof Cole told concluded.

Today, India has the most cases in the world, followed by Brasil.

Via BBC

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When shone in blue, the freshwater Japanese eel glows in a beautiful green light. (c) AKIKO KUMAGAI & ATSUSHI MIYAWAK

The Japanese freshwater eel (Anguilla japonica) is a popular choice on any sushi menu, but recent findings reveal that there’s more to it than just a simple snack. Biologists have identified a special fluorescent protein – the very first case found in a vertebrate – that makes the eel naturally glow in a bright green when shone with blue light. The protein could help researchers develop better bioimaging.

In just a few years, use of florescent proteins in biology has not only become a standard, but an indispensable tool. These molecules are developed in labs and are used to tag proteins or track how gene are expressed. In 2008, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for work pertaining to the development of such molecules, and since then research has expanded their use even further as florescent proteins with varying hues and brightness have been introduced.

In nature, the only animals capable of expressing florescent proteins that we know of are invertebrates like microbes, jellyfish, and corals -until recently. This is why Japanese scientists were simply taken by surprise by the find, especially since the first identified florescent vertebrate is such a popular animal. Some of you reading this article might have even eaten it on more than one occasion.

The discovery wasn’t made in an eccentric sushi restaurant fitted with blue lights, but in a lab, after food chemists Seiichi Hayashi and Yoshifumi Toda found that eel muscle fluoresced naturally glowing green when a blue light is shone on it , while studing nutrients in eel at Kagoshima University in Japan. The find was quickly reported and molecular biologists quickly jumped on a the wagon.

Atsushi Miyawaki, a molecular biologist at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Wako, Japan, has worked extensively with florescent proteins in the past, specializing in those collected from jellyfish and corals. Him and colleagues seized the opportunity to study these novel molecules in the Japanese eel. Eventually, they isolated the gene that codes for the molecule, and have named the new protein UnaG, after the Japanese unagi, the Japanese word for freshwater eel.

“I don’t think anyone would have thought that eels would have such a bright fluorescent protein,” says Robert Campbell, a protein engineer at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. And UnaG is in a class of its own, he says. “It’s totally different” from other fluorescent proteins. “There’s not anything you can point to that’s the same.”

Most bio-imaging today is done with the now classic Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), which shines in a green light thanks to a ’chromophore’ that is part of the protein sequence. UnaG, however, fluoresces when it binds a naturally occurring small molecule called bilirubin, a breakdown product of haemoglobin. As such, UnaG could be used to measure bilirubin in human serum using an  approach that could lead to simpler, more sensitive tests requiring smaller blood samples, says Miyawaki.

Next, scientists plan on insert the gene in mice and see how they develop onward. The findings were reported in a paper published in the journal Cell.

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The new layer has been named Dua’s layer, after academic Professor Harminder Dua, who made the discovery.

“This is a major discovery that will mean that ophthalmology textbooks will literally need to be re-written. Having identified this new and distinct layer deep in the tissue of the cornea, we can now exploit its presence to make operations much safer and simpler for patients,” says Dua, a professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences. “From a clinical perspective, there are many diseases that affect the back of the cornea which clinicians across the world are already beginning to relate to the presence, absence or tear in this layer.”

The cornea is the transparent part of the front of the eye which covers the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber. Along with the anterior chamber, the cornea acts like a lens, refracting and bending light to best suit the view. It is responsible for about two-thirds of the eye’s total optical power.

The newly discovered layer is just 15 microns thick – which may not seem like much, but when you compare it to the cornea’s entire thickness, which is about 550 microns, it becomes significant. Ophtalmologists proved the existence of this layer by simulating human corneal transplants and grafts on eyes donated for research purposes to eye banks located in Bristol and Manchester.

Their discovery has the potential to help hundreds of thousands of people, or even more – giving a better understanding on corneal problems and providing better solution, both in terms of treatment and surgery.

Full paper here

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