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Jan 14, 2025 | 
xpresschronicle.com | Sneha Khedkar
In the coldest, most isolated place on Earth, a group of scientists braves the icy winds in search of answers. Clad in thick, red gear that contrasts with the blue and white landscape, researchers retrieve worms from the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean circling Antarctica. They will bring these squirming creatures back to their labs to study how they manage to survive sub-zero temperatures without any protective gear.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
portside.org | Lisa Chow |Sneha Khedkar
When You Exercise, Your Cells Are Talking to Each Other Published January 13, 2025 On a brisk afternoon in March 2009 in Ontario, as winter melted into spring, Mark Tarnopolsky and his team at McMaster University sat around a table for their weekly lab meeting. The topic was the focus of their group research: exercise physiology.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
the-scientist.com | Sneha Khedkar
Nearly everyone is familiar with the feeling of accidentally touching a hot vessel or holding onto something freezing for too long.
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Jan 9, 2025 | 
the-scientist.com | Sneha Khedkar
As the holiday season wraps up, people may reflect on the past few weeks of celebrations. The festive atmosphere, complete with holiday feasts ranging from gingerbread cookies and mulled wine to sausage rolls and pies, can increase cravings. Someone intending to have just one treat may find themselves reaching out for another, and another, until they have overindulged. This brings up a common question: What regulates food habits, both cravings and quantities?
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Jan 6, 2025 | 
the-scientist.com | Sneha Khedkar
The soft and squishy fat rolls on a baby serve a significant purpose. They are an important depot for brown adipocytes—fat cells that burn energy to release heat—that help keep the baby warm.1 As babies grow up, they lose a majority of these brown fat stores. Adults have a higher proportion of white adipose tissue (WAT), which stores fat as energy reserves for the body.
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Dec 4, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Sneha Khedkar
Deep in the underwater world, animals like starfish use unusual ways to escape predators. In an act called autotomy, starfish shed one or more of their limbs to flee their hunters. The severed, writhing body part distracts the attacker, allowing the starfish to glide away. Over time, the starfish can even regenerate the lost limb, returning to their usual life after a brush with death. This is not the only peculiar trait of these animals.
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Dec 3, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Sneha Khedkar |Ziyuan Guo
The blood-brain barrier (BBB) regulates the passage of substances between the bloodstream and the brain, permitting essential nutrients and certain drugs to enter, while blocking harmful molecules.1 Disruptions to this critical function can lead to severe conditions like brain cancers and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease.2 Despite its important physiological role in health and disease, scientist struggle to study this protective membrane, in part since the BBB of lab...
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Sneha Khedkar
Abacterium found in the wound microbiome can accelerate healing, highlighting the potential for microbiota-based wound therapies. Skin wounds that fail to heal in a normal timeframe are considered to be chronic, and an estimated two percent of the global population will experience a chronic wound in their lifetime.1 In addition to severe pain, individuals with chronic wounds can face mental health problems due to the persistent nature of the condition and the risk of recurrence.
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Sneha Khedkar
As mist lingers over a Swedish fjord lined with towering, forested cliffs, a group of scientists collect mud from the bottom of the turquoise-colored waters. They’re after brittle stars—marine animals with long, slender, serpent-like arms—to peek into the genes that give them distinct characteristics, including the power of regeneration. Brittle stars belong to the phylum Echinodermata, which includes sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and sea lilies.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Sneha Khedkar
An enzyme synthesized in the fly gut travels to the brain, where it induces insulin-like peptide secretion. When lipid biologist Usha Acharya at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) tinkered with lipid breakdown pathways in Drosophila melanogaster, she observed something intriguing. Blocking a biochemical reaction led to a lipid molecule accumulating to levels high enough to activate stress responses in the flies. Despite this, the insects survived.
