Canadian Space Agency Announces AuroraMAX, a New Project Which Puts the Northern Lights Online
The Canadian Space Agency, the City of Yellowknife, the University of Calgary, and Astronomy North recently announced the creation of AuroraMAX, an online observatory and outreach project that will feature live broadcast of the Aurora Borealis (or northern lights) from Yellowknife in 2012. This collaborative venture aims to increase an understanding of the phenomenon both locally and nationally.
“AuroraMAX is much more than just an online observatory, it’s an invitation to come and see Yellowknife auroras for yourself,” says Gordon van Tighem, Mayor of Yellowknife.
A team led by University of Calgary space physicist Eric Donovan, has developed and is operating the world ’s foremost network of “Auroral cameras” and is providing the scientific and technical support for AuroraMAX. The images produced by the AuroraMax project will become an important part of Canada’s contribution to NASA’s THEMIS mission to study the Aurora, and these images will be used by scientists around the world. “We benefit from being involved in this project,” Mr. Donovan says. “These images will be a tremendous addition to our science effort.”
Project management for the observatory will be led jointly by the Canadian Space Agency and Astronomy North, a society dedicated to observing, exploring, and explaining the nature and culture of Canada’s northern sky. “The timing of this project couldn’t be better,” says James Pugsley, President of Astronomy North. “As the Sun approaches Solar Maximum there will be a dramatic increase in the intensity and frequency of the northern lights. It’s the greatest light show on Earth and AuroraMAX will give Canadians a front row seat.”
Auroras occur as charged particles from the sun collide with gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Sunspots are a primary source of these particles, which is why the peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle (known as Solar Maximum), expected in 2012, is met with high expectations in Yellowknife, a world-renowned Aurora viewing location.
“The Canadian Space Agency is proud to be part of this initiative that will promote the Aurora Borealis, one of the North’s greatest treasures,” says Steve MacLean, President of the Canadian Space Agency. “We have a lot to explore and learn about the Northern sky from our colleagues in Yellowknife who have a wealth of knowledge to share with communities across the country and around the world.”
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Over-Consumption of Sugar Linked to Aging
It is known that lifespan can be extended in animals by restricting calories, like those related to consuming sugar. Now, according to a study published in the journal, PLoS Genetics, Université de Montréal scientists have discovered that it ’s not sugar itself that is important in this process but the ability of cells to sense its presence.
Aging is a complex phenomenon, and the mechanisms underlying it are yet to be explained. What researchers do know is that there is a clear relationship between aging and calorie intake. For example, mice fed with half the calories they usually eat can live 40 per cent longer. How does this work?
As part of the PLoS Genetics study, Université de Montréal Biochemistry Professor Luis Rokeach and his student Antoine Roux discovered to their surprise that if they removed the gene for a glucose sensor from yeast cells, they lived just as long as those living on a glucose-restricted diet. In short, the fate of these cells doesn’t depend on what they eat but what they think they’re eating.
There are two obvious aspects of calorie intake: tasting and digestion. By the time nutrients get to human cells there is an analogous process: sensors on the surface of the cell detect the presence of, for example, the sugar glucose, and molecules inside the cell break down the glucose, converting it to energy. Of these processes, it is widely thought that the by-products of broken down sugars are the culprits in aging. The study by Professor Rokeach and Mr. Roux suggests otherwise.
To understand aging, the two, in collaboration with Université de Montréal Biochemistry Professors Pascal Chartrand and Gerardo Ferbeyre, used yeast as a model organism. At a basic level, yeast cells are surprisingly similar and age much like human cells, as well as being easy to study.
The research team found that the lifespan of yeast cells increased when glucose was decreased from their diet. They then investigated whether the increase in lifespan was due to cells decreasing their ability to produce energy or to the decrease in signal to the cells by the glucose sensor.
The scientists found that cells unable to consume glucose as energy source are still sensitive to the pro-aging effects of glucose. Conversely, obliterating the sensor that measures the levels of glucose significantly increased lifespan.
“Thanks to this study, the link between the rise in age-related diseases and the over-consumption of sugar in today ’s diet is clearer,” says Professor Rokeach. “Our research opens a door to new therapeutic strategies for fighting age-related diseases.”
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Study Confirms Effects of Early Environment in Brains of Suicide Victims
A team of McGill University scientists has discovered important differences between the brains of suicide victims and so-called normal brains. Although the genetic sequence was identical in the suicide and non-suicide brains, there were differences in their epigenetic marking – a chemical coating influenced by environmental factors.
All of the 13 suicide victims in the study had experienced abuse as children.
“It’s possible the changes in epigenetic markers were caused by the exposure to childhood abuse,” said Moshe Szyf, a professor in McGill’s Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, “although in humans it’s difficult to establish causality between early childhood and epigenetic markers, in the way we have established this in animal subjects. The big remaining questions are whether scientists could detect similar changes in blood DNA – which could lead to diagnostic tests – and whether we could design interventions to erase these differences in epigenetic markings.”
Professor Moshe Szyf.
This is the first study of its kind, conducted by Mr. Szyf (a professor in McGill’s Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics), Gustavo Turecki (a professor in McGill’s Department of Psychiatry who practices at Montreal’s Douglas Hospital), Michael Meaney (a professor in McGill’s Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology and Neurosurgery, who also practises at Douglas Hospital), and McGill postdoctoral research fellow Patrick McGowan. The distinguished team has built on its world-renowned epigenetics work to uncover differences in the DNA in the brains of a group of male suicide victims from Quebec.
Epigenetics is the study of changes in the function of genes that don’t involve changes in the sequences of DNA. The DNA is inherited from our parents; it remains fixed throughout life and is identical in every part of the body. During gestation, however, the genes in our DNA are marked by a chemical coating called DNA methylation. These marks are somewhat sensitive to one’s environment, especially early in life. The epigenetic marks punctuate the DNA and program it to express the right genes at the appropriate time and place.
The researchers examined a set of genes that code for rRNA, a basic component of the machinery that creates protein in cells. Protein synthesis is critical for learning, memory, and the building of new connections in the brain; it can affect decision-making and other behaviour. The scientists found that rRNA can be regulated epigenetically.
In previous studies in laboratory rats, the group proved that simple maternal behaviour during early childhood has a profound effect on genes and behaviour in ways that are sustained throughout life. However, these effects on gene expression and stress responses can also be reversed in adult life through treatments known to affect the genomic marking known as DNA methylation.
The brain samples in the latest study came from the Quebec Suicide Brain Bank, administered by Dr. Turecki of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. With the support of the Bureau du Coroner du Québec (Office of the Chief Medical Examiner), the McGill Group for Suicide Studies founded the Quebec Suicide Brain Bank at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, to promote studies on the phenomenon of suicide. Research carried out on brain tissue can help develop intervention and prevention programs to help people suffering mental distress and who are at risk of committing suicide.
The research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
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Researchers Find Brain Differences Between Believers and Non-Believers
Believing in God can help block anxiety and minimize stress, according to new University of Toronto research that shows distinct brain differences between believers and non-believers.
Michael Inzlicht.
In two studies led by Assistant Psychology Professor Michael Inzlicht, participants performed a Stroop task – a well-known test of cognitive control – while hooked up to electrodes that measured their brain activity. Compared to non-believers, the religious participants showed significantly less activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain that helps modify behavior by signaling when attention and control are needed, usually as a result of some anxiety-producing event like making a mistake. The stronger their religious zeal and the more they believed in God, the less their ACC fired in response to their own errors, and the fewer errors they made.
“You could think of this part of the brain like a cortical alarm bell that rings when an individual has just made a mistake or experiences uncertainty,” says Professor Inzlicht, the study’s lead author, a teacher and researcher at the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus. “We found that religious people or even people who simply believe in the existence of God show significantly less brain activity in relation to their own errors. They’re much less anxious and feel less stressed when they have made an error.”
These correlations remained strong even after controling for personality and cognitive ability, says Professor Inzlicht, who also found that religious participants made fewer errors on the Stroop task than their non-believing counterparts.
Their findings show religious belief has a calming effect on its devotees, which makes them less likely to feel anxious about making errors or facing the unknown. But Professor Inzlicht cautions that anxiety is a “double-edged sword” which is at times necessary and helpful.
“Obviously, anxiety can be negative because if you have too much, you’re paralyzed with fear,” he says. “However, it also serves a very useful function in that it alerts us when we’re making mistakes. If you don’t experience anxiety when you make an error, what impetus do you have to change or improve your behaviour so you don’t make the same mistakes again and again?”
The paper was co-authored by Dr. Ian McGregor at York University, and by Jacob Hirsh and Kyle Nash, doctoral candidates at the University of Toronto and York University, respectively.
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