Sunday, June 04, 2023

Vitamin D alters developing neurons in the brain's dopamine circuit, finds study

Neuroscientists at The University of Queensland have uncovered how vitamin D deficiency affects developing neurons in schizophrenia, using new technology. The paper was published in the Journal of Neurochemistry.

Professor Darryl Eyles has built on past research out of his laboratory at the Queensland Brain Institute linking maternal vitamin D deficiency and brain development disorders, such as schizophrenia, to understand the functional changes taking place in the brain.

Schizophrenia is associated with many developmental risk factors, both genetic and environmental. While the precise neurological causes of the disorder are unknown, what is known is that schizophrenia is associated with a pronounced change in the way the brain uses dopamine, the neurotransmitter often referred to as the brain's "reward molecule."

Professor Eyles has followed the mechanisms that might relate to abnormal dopamine release and discovered that maternal vitamin D deficiency affects the early development and later differentiation of dopaminergic neurons.

The team at the Queensland Brain Institute developed dopamine-like cells to replicate the process of differentiation into early dopaminergic neurons that usually takes place during embryonic development.

They cultured the neurons both in the presence and absence of the active vitamin D hormone. In three different model systems they showed dopamine neurite outgrowth was markedly increased. They then showed alterations in the distribution of presynaptic proteins responsible for dopamine release within these neurites.

"What we found was the altered differentiation process in the presence of vitamin D not only makes the cells grow differently, but recruits machinery to release dopamine differently," Professor Eyles said.

Using a new visualization tool known as false fluorescent neurotransmitters, the team could then analyze the functional changes in presynaptic dopamine uptake and release in the presence and absence of vitamin D.

They showed that dopamine release was enhanced in cells grown in the presence of the hormone compared to a control.

"This is conclusive evidence that vitamin D affects the structural differentiation of dopaminergic neurons."

Leveraging advances in targeting and visualizing single molecules within presynaptic nerve terminals has enabled Professor Eyles and his team to further explore their long-standing belief that maternal vitamin D deficiency changes how early dopaminergic circuits are formed.

The team is now exploring whether other environmental risk factors for schizophrenia such as maternal hypoxia or infection similarly alter the trajectory of dopamine neuron differentiation.

Eyles and his team believe such early alterations to dopamine neuron differentiation and function may be the neurodevelopmental origin of dopamine dysfunction later in adults who develop schizophrenia.

More information: Renata Aparecida Nedel Pertile et al, Vitamin D: A potent regulator of dopaminergic neuron differentiation and function, Journal of Neurochemistry (2023). DOI: 10.1111/jnc.15829

Journal information: Journal of Neurochemistry

Provided by University of Queensland A new model to trial preventative treatments for schizophrenia

Stephen Hawking's last collaborator on physicist's final theory

by Daniel Lawler

Stephen Hawking in his Cambridge office, where he first met his final collaborator Thomas Hertog — Stephen Hawking in his Cambridge office, where he first met his final collaborator Thomas

When Thomas Hertog was first summoned to Stephen Hawking's office in the late 1990s, there was an instant connection between the young Belgian researcher and the legendary British theoretical physicist.

"Something clicked between us," Hertog said.

That connection would continue even as Hawking's debilitating disease ALS robbed him of his last ways to communicate, allowing the pair to complete a new theory that aims to turn how science looks at the universe on its head.

The theory, which would be Hawking's last before his death in 2018, has been laid out in full for the first time in Hertog's book "On the Origin of Time", published in the UK last month.

In an interview with AFP, the cosmologist spoke about their 20-year collaboration, how they communicated via facial expression, and why Hawking ultimately decided his landmark book "A Brief of History of Time" was written from the wrong perspective.

The 'designed' universe

During their first meeting at Cambridge University in 1998, Hawking wasted no time in bringing up the problem bothering him.

"The universe we observe appears designed," Hawking told Hertog, communicating via a clicker connected to a speech machine.

Hertog explained that "the laws of physics—the rules on which the universe runs—turn out to be just perfect for the universe to be habitable, for life to be possible."

This remarkable string of good luck stretches from the delicate balance that makes it possible for atoms to form molecules necessary for chemistry to the expansion of the universe itself, which allows for vast cosmic structures such as galaxies.

One "trendy" answer to this problem has been the multiverse, an idea that has recently become popular in the movie industry, Hertog said.

This theory explains away the seemingly designed nature of the universe by making it just one of countless others—most of which are "crap, lifeless, sterile", the 47-year-old added.

But Hawking realized the "great mire of paradoxes the multiverse was leading us into", arguing there must be a better explanation, Hertog said.

Outsider's perspective

A few years into their collaboration, "it began to sink in" that they were missing something fundamental, Hertog said.

The multiverse and even "A Brief History of Time" were "attempts to describe the creation and evolution of our universe from what Stephen would call a 'God's eye perspective'," Hertog said.

But because "we are within the universe" and not outside looking in, our theories cannot be decoupled from our perspective, he added.

Hawking had "a very wide range of facial expressions, ranging from extreme disagreement to extreme excitement", Hertog — *Hawking had "a very wide range of facial expressions, ranging from extreme disagreement*

"That was why (Hawking) said that 'A Brief History of Time' is written from the wrong perspective."

For the next 15 years, the pair used the oddities of quantum theory to develop a new theory of physics and cosmology from an "observer's perspective".

But by 2008, Hawking had lost the ability to use his clicker, becoming increasingly isolated from the world.

"I thought it was over," Hertog said.

Then the pair developed a "somewhat magical" level of non-verbal communication that allowed them to continue working, he said.

Positioned in front of Hawking, Hertog would ask questions and look into the physicist's eyes.

"He had a very wide range of facial expressions, ranging from extreme disagreement to extreme excitement," he said.

"It's impossible to disentangle" which parts of the final theory came from himself or Hawking, Hertog said, adding that many of the ideas had been developed between the pair over the years.

'One grand evolutionary process'

Their theory is focused on what happened in the first moments after the Big Bang.

Rather than an explosion that followed a pre-existing set of rules, they propose that the laws of physics evolved along with the universe.

This means that if you turn back the clock far enough, "the laws of physics themselves begin to simplify and disappear", Hertog said.

"Ultimately, even the dimension of time evaporates."

Under this theory, the laws of physics and time itself evolved in a way that resembles biological evolution—the title of Hertog's book is a reference to Darwin's "On the Origin of Species".

"What we're essentially saying is that (biology and physics) are two levels of one grand evolutionary process," Hertog said.

He acknowledged that it is difficult to prove this theory because the first years of the universe remain "hidden in the mist of the Big Bang".

One way to lift this veil could be by studying gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of space time, while another could be via quantum holograms constructed on quantum computers, he said.

Taming the multiverse—Stephen Hawking's final theory about the big bang

See stunning images combining James Webb and Chandra X-ray data

By Georgina TorbetMay 27, 2023

Since beginning science operations last summer, the James Webb Space Telescope has been providing a plethora of beautiful images of space. Now, NASA has shared a new view of some of those images, by combining infrared data from Webb with X-ray data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

The four new images show a variety of cosmic objects like galaxies and nebulae, bringing together observations from different wavelengths to show features that wouldn’t be visible in a single wavelength. As well as Webb and Chandra, the images also incorporate data from the Hubble Space Telescope, which operates in the visible light wavelength, the retired Spitzer Space Telescope which looked in the infrared, and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton X-ray instrument and the European Southern Observatory’s New Technology Telescope, which also operates in the visible wavelength.

Clockwise from top left: NGC 346, NGC 1672, M16 (Eagle Nebula), M74. Credit: X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/SAO, XMM: ESA/XMM-Newton; IR: JWST: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI, Spitzer: NASA/JPL/CalTech; Optical: Hubble: NASA/ESA/STScI, ESO; Image Processing: L. Frattare, J. Major, N. Wolk, and K. Arcand

The four images shown above are available in higher resolution on the Chandra X-Ray Observatory website. The top left image is a star cluster called NGC 346, located in a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way called the Small Magellanic Cloud. The infrared data from Webb shows the clouds of dust and gas which are used in the formation of stars and planets. The purple haze is from Chandra data, showing the aftermath of a supernova when a massive star reached the end of its life and exploded, sending out energy and light. Some of the youngest and brightest stars are also giving off X-rays, making them shine in the Chandra view.

Top right is the spiral galaxy NGC 1672, with the stars spread through the galaxy but concentrated in a bar formation across the center. The Chandra data shows purple dots spread around the galaxy, which represent extremely dense objects like neutron stars and black holes. These objects glow in the X-ray wavelength because they pull material away from nearby stars, and as this material approaches the objects it rubs together and heats up due to friction. As this matter reaches temperatures of up to millions of degrees, it gives off X-rays that telescopes like Chandra can detect.

On the bottom row is the spiral galaxy Messier 74 and the famous Eagle Nebula. M74 appears face-on from Earth, which gives a great view of its structure, with Webb data showing the swirling dust and gas and the Chandra data picking out particularly active stars which are giving off X-ray energy. Similarly, in the image of the Eagle Nebula, Webb mapped out the clouds of dust and Chandra picks out the points of light where bright young stars are glowing.

A further set of images combining Webb and Chandra was released last year if you want to see more of these stunning views

The universe looks amazing in new photos from the James Webb Space Telescope and famed

Chandra X-ray observatory

Rebecca Sohn
May 26, 2023·

a spiral galaxy imaged in full color

a four-panel composite image showing different galaxies and nebulas in full color

If you've ever wished you had X-ray vision, NASA has some photos for you.

NASA has released four composite images using data from several of its most advanced telescopes to depict our universe in different wavelengths of light, including data collected by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Space Telescope.

The images, which show two galaxies, a star cluster, and a nebula, are rendered in dazzling colors representing X-ray and infrared radiation, as well as optical light.

Related: James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) — A complete guide

The two galaxies pictured are called NGC 1672 and M74. Categorized as a barred spiral galaxy for its straight, "barred" arms of stars near its center, NGC 1672 is a galaxy about 60 million light-years from Earth. The new composite image shows several areas, especially in its outer arms, emitting intense X-ray radiation, shown in purple. According to NASA, these areas represent super-dense objects, such as neutron stars and black holes, that are pulling material into the galaxy.

a colorful swirl of gases in deep space

M74 is a spiral galaxy like our own galactic home the Milky Way, located about 32 million light-years away from us. Also called the Phantom Galaxy because it is visibly very dim, the galaxy has an intricate lacey structure revealed by JWST. Now, data from Chandra notes multiple sources of X-ray radiation, including young stars, dotting the spiral.

a white and blue spiral galaxy surrounded by stars

Another image shows M16, also called The Eagle Nebula, which is about 6,500 light years away. The image shows the nebula's famous "Pillars of Creation," dramatic clouds of dust and gas containing young stars, the most intense of which are highlighted in brilliant pinks and purples to show the powerful X-rays they emit. The image highlights the finding that most of these young, X-ray-emitting stars are actually outside the pillars, with only a few young stars emitting this intense radiation from within the clouds.

tall pillars of gases in deep space

The image with the most notable contribution by Chandra might be of NGC 346, a star cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy 200,000 light-years from Earth. A bright purple splotch on the left side of the image highlights the remnants of a supernova explosion, the spectacular death of a huge star.

Read more: This new supernova is the closest to Earth in a decade. It's visible in the night sky right now.

a dense cloud of stars and colorful gases in deep space

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The NGC 346 cluster is also speckled with purple-white blotches of X-rays emitted from young, massive stars. This image is unique among the four, as it contains data from not only Chandra, Webb, and Hubble, but also the European Southern Observatory's New Technology telescope, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton telescope, and NASA's retired Spitzer Space Telescope.

You can find all the photos, including the photos combined to make the composite images and 3D-printable tactile plates of each image, on the Chandra X-Ray Observatory's website.

UAE to land a probe on an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter in 2034

Artist's impression of the United Arab Emirates' MBR Explorer asteroid-studying spacecraft. (Image credit: UAE Space Agency )

An asteroid that may host life's building blocks will get a visit from a United Arab Emirates (UAE) spacecraft about a decade from now, if all goes according to plan.

In October 2021, the UAE announced that it plans to launch an ambitious mission to the asteroid belt in 2028. That mission will visit seven different space rocks, and even land on one of them, an asteroid called (269) Justitia.

On Sunday (May 28), the nation gave us some new information about this bold asteroid mission — including its name, the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA).

"EMA is a key component of the UAE National Space Strategy and has one over-riding goal — the creation of viable and rewarding employment opportunities for young Emiratis for generations to come," Sarah Al Amiri, chair of the UAE Space Agency, said in a statement.

"Emirati learning, knowledge transfer and innovation lie at the heart of EMA and our growing private space sector will contribute over 50% of the overall contracted mission, forming a major global commercial space opportunity," Al Amiri added.

We also learned on Sunday that the EMA spacecraft will be named after Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the vice president and prime minister of the UAE and the ruler of Dubai: It will be called the MBR Explorer.

The MBR Explorer will visit its first asteroid in 2030, and will follow an orbital path allowing it to pick up speed from several planets along the way. (It's common for spacecraft to get such "gravity assists" from worlds like Venus or Mars to save on fuel, and to do side observations to test their instruments.)

After passing by six asteroids, the mission aims to touch down upon Justitia in 2034 with a small lander that will deploy from MBR Explorer. Justitia may have organic molecules on its surface; organics are the building blocks of the complex molecules that could form life in the right circumstances.

More generally, scientists seek water and organics all over the solar system to better understand how life arose on Earth. That search may be especially meaningful on Justitia, which may have formed closer to our planet and then migrated out to its current position in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, scientists say.

Though Jupiter and Earth are very different types of planets, there appears to be at least one similarity

Thomson Reuters · Posted: May 26, 2023

An illustration of Jupiter shows several bright spots at its north pole. — This artist's concept of lightning distribution in Jupiter's northern hemisphere incorporates a JunoCam image from the NASA spacecraft Juno with artistic embellishments. Data from NASA's Juno mission indicates that most of the lightning activity on Jupiter is near its poles. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/JunoCam/Reuters)

Data obtained by NASA's Juno probe is providing fresh information on how the lightning processes on Jupiter are similar to those on Earth despite the dramatic differences between the two planets, according to scientists.

Hidden below the brownish ammonia clouds blanketing Jupiter are clouds that, like on Earth, are made of water. And like on Earth, lightning often is generated within these clouds — an eerie sight spotted by various spacecraft, including Juno, that have visited our solar system's largest planet.

Earth is a relatively small rocky world. Jupiter, whose namesake of an ancient Roman god flung lightning bolts, is a gas giant so immense that all the other planets in our solar system could neatly fit inside it — including more than 1,300 Earths.

Tapping into five years of high-resolution data acquired by Juno's radio receiver as the spacecraft orbits Jupiter, the researchers found that the planet's lightning initiation processes pulsate with a similar rhythm to that observed inside clouds on our planet. The pulses observed on Jupiter as flashes of lightning were initiated with time separations of about a millisecond, similar to thunderstorms on Earth.

An illustration shows a spacecraft with long solar panels approaching Jupiter. — This illustration depicts NASA's Juno spacecraft at Jupiter. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Lightning is the most powerful naturally occurring electrical source on Earth.

"Lightning is an electric discharge, which is initiated inside thunderclouds. The ice and water particles inside the cloud get charged by collisions and form layers of particles with the charge of the same polarity," said planetary scientist Ivana Kolmasova of the Czech Academy of Sciences' Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Prague, lead author of the study published this week in the journal Nature Communications.

"By this process, a huge electric field is established and the discharge can be initiated. This explanation is somewhat simplified because scientists are still not completely sure what is exactly happening inside thunderclouds."

Lightning in the solar system

The existence of lightning on Jupiter was confirmed when telltale radio emissions at audible frequencies were recorded in 1979 by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft as it ventured through the solar system.

The solar system's other gas planets — Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — also have been shown to have lightning. There is some evidence for lightning in the clouds of the rocky planet Venus, though it is still a matter of debate.

Six black and white images show bright spots in the cloud tops of Saturn. — This image, taken from a movie captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in 2010, shows lightning on Saturn's night side flashing in a cloud that is illuminated by light from Saturn's rings. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/University of Iowa)

Other studies have detailed other similarities in the lightning processes on Jupiter and Earth. For instance, lightning rates on the two planets are similar, though the distribution of lightning on Jupiter differs from Earth.

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"On Earth, the tropical regions are the most active ones. The majority of Jovian lightning occurs in mid-latitudes and also in polar regions. We have nearly no lightning activity close to the poles on the Earth. It means that conditions for the formation of Jovian and terrestrial thunderclouds are probably very different," Kolmasova said.

"There were some attempts to compare the power of lightning based on optical measurements and it was concluded that lightning on Jupiter might be comparable with the strongest terrestrial lightning."

Kolmasova noted that more analysis is planned.

Jupiter is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, with traces of other gases. Stripes and a few storms dominate the colourful appearance of Jupiter, the fifth planet from the sun with a diameter of about 143,000 kilometres.

Juno has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, obtaining information about its atmosphere, interior structure, internal magnetic field and the region around it created by its internal magnetism.

Is Jupiter's lightning different from Earth's? Answer is in clouds

This artists concept of lightning distribution in Jupiters northern hemisphere incorporates a JunoCam image from the NASA spacecraft Juno with artistic embellishments. — Reuters/File — This artist's concept of lightning distribution in Jupiter's northern hemisphere incorporates a JunoCam image from the NASA spacecraft Juno with artistic embellishments. — Reuters/File

Nasa’s Juno spacecraft has detected similarities between the lightning on Jupiter and Earth despite huge differences in the chemical compositions of the atmospheres of both planets, reported Reuters.

Below the brownish ammonia clouds that have covered our solar system's most giant planet are the clouds made of water, just like the Earth.

As lightning is often generated within these clouds, similar activity also takes place on Jupiter which was captured by various space probes including Juno.

Our world is a small rocky planet whereas Jupiter — named after the ancient mythological Roman god who could fling lightning bolts — is a gas giant so enormous that all the other planets in our solar system could easily fit inside it including more than 1,300 Earths.

Researchers while studying five years of high-resolution data collected by Juno spacecraft — which orbits Jupiter — the planet's lightning initiation processes pulsate with a similar rhythm to that observed inside clouds on our planet.

This illustration depicts NASA’s Juno spacecraft soaring over Jupiter’s south pole. — Nasa/File

In the study published this week in the journal Nature Communications, scientists noted that the pulses seen on Jupiter are flashes of lightning that spark with time separations of about a millisecond, similar to thunderstorms on Earth.

On Earth, lightning is the most powerful naturally occurring electrical source.

Planetary scientist Ivana Kolmasova of the Czech Academy of Sciences' Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Prague, and the lead author of the study, said: "Lightning is an electric discharge which is initiated inside thunderclouds. The ice and water particles inside the cloud get charged by collisions and form layers of particles with the charge of the same polarity."

Lightning on Jupiter was confirmed when telltale radio emissions at audible frequencies were recorded in 1979 by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft as it ventured through the solar system.

The solar system's other gas-dominated planets — Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — were also witnessed to have lightning.

Other studies have detailed other similarities in the lightning processes on Jupiter and Earth. For instance, lightning rates on the two planets are similar though the distribution of lightning on Jupiter differs from Earth.

Displayed as a proper sphere, Jupiter shines like a jewel in the night, a giant pillar of colour and power that towers above everything in the solar system besides the sun itself. — Nasa/File

"There were some attempts to compare the power of lightning based on optical measurements and it was concluded that lightning on Jupiter might be comparable with the strongest terrestrial lightning," Kolmasova added while noting that "more analysis is planned".

Jupiter is made up of hydrogen and helium, with other gases. Stripes and a few storms dominate the colourful appearance of Jupiter, the fifth planet from the sun with a diameter of about 88,850 miles (143,000 km).

Juno has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, obtaining information about its atmosphere, interior structure, internal magnetic field and the region around it created by its internal magnetism.

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Sunday, June 04, 2023

The 'designed' universe

Outsider's perspective

'One grand evolutionary process'

Though Jupiter and Earth are very different types of planets, there appears to be at least one similarity

Lightning in the solar system

Is Jupiter's lightning different from Earth's? Answer is in clouds

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Sunday, June 04, 2023

The 'designed' universe

Outsider's perspective

'One grand evolutionary process'

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Though Jupiter and Earth are very different types of planets, there appears to be at least one similarity

Lightning in the solar system

Is Jupiter's lightning different from Earth's? Answer is in clouds