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Hits Parade — AlphaGalileo Top 5
Our hit parade compiles the press releases with bigger number of visits in July 2012.
1.When Anxiety Won’t Go Away— University of Bonn — 06/08/2012
Scientists at the Universities of Bonn and Berlin have discovered a mechanism which stops the process of forgetting anxiety after a stress event. In experiments they showed that feelings of anxiety don’t subside if too little dynorphin is released into the brain. The results can help open up new paths in the treatment of trauma patients. The study has been published in the current edition of the Journal of Neuroscience.
2.Cutting the graphene cake — Manchester University — 27/07/2012
Researchers at The University of Manchester have demonstrated that graphene can be used as a building block to create new 3D crystal structures which are not confined by what nature can produce. Sandwiching individual graphene sheets between insulating layers in order to produce electrical devices with unique new properties, the method could open up a new dimension of physics research. Writing in Nature Materials, the scientists show that a new side-view imaging technique can be used to visualize the individual atomic layers of graphene within the devices they have built. They found that the structures were almost perfect even when more than 10 different layers were used to build the stack.
3.Music to My Eyes: Device Converting Images into Music Helps Individuals without Vision Reach for Objects in Space — IOS Press BV— 05/07/2012
Sensory substitution devices (SSDs) use sound or touch to help the visually impaired perceive the visual scene surrounding them. The ideal SSD would assist not only in sensing the environment but also in performing daily activities based on this input. For example, accurately reaching for a coffee cup, or shaking a friend’s hand. In a new study, scientists trained blindfolded sighted participants to perform fast and accurate movements using a new SSD, called EyeMusic. Their results are published in the July issue of Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience.
An illustration of the EyeMusic SSD, showing a user with a camera mounted on the glasses, and scalp headphones, hearing musical notes that create a mental image of the visual scene in front of him. He is reaching for the red apple in a pile of green ones. Top right: close-up of the glasses-mounted camera and headphones; bottom right: hand-held camera pointed at the object of interest. [Image credit Maxim Dupliy, Amir Amedi and Shelly Levy-Tzedek]
4. Children of ‘The Troubles’ more prone to suicide — Queen's University Belfast — 23/07/2012
People who grew up in the worst years of ‘The Troubles ‘ are more prone to suicide in Northern Ireland, according to new research carried out at Queen’s University Belfast.
The research, which examined death registration data over the last 40 years, found that the highest suicide rate is for men aged 35-44 (41 per 100,000 by 2010) followed closely by the 25-34 and 45-54 age groups. The findings showed that children who grew up in the worst years of violence between 1969 and 1977-78 are the cohort which now has the highest suicide rates and the most rapidly increasing rates of all age groups.
5.Global warming favours proliferation of toxic cyanobacteria — Plataforma SINC — 03/07/2012
Cyanobacterial populations, primitive aquatic microorganisms, are frequently-encountered in water bodies especially in summer. Their numbers have increased in recent decades and scientists suspect that global warming may be behind the phenomenon, and are particularly concerned by the increase in toxic cyanobacteria, which affect human and animal health.
Population of cyanobacteria (Anabaena spp. and Microcystis aeruginosa). Image: Y. Ouahid.
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