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A Selection Of Opinions And Editorials
Why The Health Care Rush? - The Wall Street Journal
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Brittle Table Salt Can Stretch Like Taffy In The Nanoworld - Nano Letters
Researchers in New Mexico are reporting the surprise discovery that common table salt - so brittle that it crushes easily between a thumb and forefinger - becomes a super plastic in the weird environs of the nanoworld. The super-elastic salt can stretch like taffy to twice its original length without breaking. The discovery could lead to new insights into the role of salt in a wide variety of situations ranging from helping clouds to form to triggering asthmatic attacks in people, they say. Their study is in the current issue of ACS" Nano Letters, a monthly journal.
News of the day
Oregon Researcher Puts New Focus On How Particles Of Colloidal Materials And Artificial Cells Interact
Applying biological molecules from cell membranes to the surfaces of artificial materials is opening peepholes on the very basics of cell-to-cell interaction.
Mental Health

Melatonin - The Fountain Of Youth?

Melatonin can slow down the effects of aging. A team at laboratoire Arago in Banyuls sur Mer (CNRS / Universitç© Pierre et Marie Curie) has found that a treatment based on melatonin can delay the first signs of aging in a small mammal. These results appeared in the journal PLoS ONE on 15 June 2009. Better known as the "time-keeping" hormone, melatonin is naturally secreted by the body during the night. It is therefore a kind of biological signal for nightfall, allowing an organism to synchronize itself with the day/night rhythm. At Laboratoire Arago, Elodie Magnanou and her co-workers studied the long-term effects of melatonin on the Greater White-toothed shrew, a small nocturnal insectivorous mammal. Under normal conditions, this animal shows the first signs of aging after reaching 12 months, mainly through the loss of circadian rhythm in its activities. By continuously administering melatonin, starting a little before 12 months, the appearance of these first signs was delayed by at least 3 months, which is a considerable period in relation to the lifespan of this shrew(1). Melatonin is now known to play several beneficial roles. These include being an antioxidant, an anti-depressant, and helping to remediate sleep problems. The next step will be to understand the mode of action of the hormone on aging, so we can perhaps envisage its use on humans. (1)The Greater White-toothed shrew has a lifespan of 12 to 18 months in the wild and up to 30 months in captivity. Captivity does not change the time at which signs of aging appear, it simply lengthens life. Dç©lç©gation Paris Michel-Ange


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