La reducción de los niveles de glucosa en sangre, pocas horas después de las comidas, podría ser la clave.
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Nuevos datos que indican que la superficie de la Tierra se fragmentó hace 3200 millones de años aclaran de qué modo impulsó la tectónica de placas la evolución de la vida compleja.
El observatorio infrarrojo, cuyo lanzamiento está previsto para octubre, llevará a cabo cientos de estudios pioneros relacionados con exoplanetas, estrellas, galaxias o nuestro propio sistema solar.
Un paleontólogo y una ilustradora nos muestran cómo serían en la realidad las criaturas mitológicas, si se ajustaran a las reglas de la biomecánica.
Clinical trials often have a serious drawback: The people to whom medicines are administered in them are selected very strictly. Most clinical trials, for example, do not allow pregnant women. And most have age requirements. Additionally, most do not allow people with conditions other than those being tested.
This filtering process reduces the available pool of potential volunteers and also unnecessarily excludes many people who may benefit from the therapy. Artificial intelligence could change this sieve.
Red flags
A team of researchers from Stanford University, working with the biotechnology corporation Genentech, has developed a system based on artificial intelligence that can safely add clinical trial participants who may have been previously excluded.
The new system, called Pathfinder Trial, compares the survival outcomes of clinical trial participants included in a large database.
As the system analyzes the data, it learns more about which patients are more or less likely to experience problems in a clinical trial of a new drug, based on several factors, such as age, weight, whether they are pregnant, and their history. doctor. The system can then be used to emulate a clinical trial by including people who would have previously been filtered out. Finally, researchers can use the information from the system when setting criteria for their real-world clinical trial.
Testing real-world data on specific applications, such as certain types of cancers, showed that it is able to increase the allowable populations of volunteers in such drug trials by approximately 53%.
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The news
Artificial intelligence could allow people excluded from clinical trials to access them
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
According to a new calculation carried out by researchers from the Center national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and the University of Paris-Saclay, and published in the journal Earth & Planetary Science Letters, every year 5,200 tons of micrometeorites (interplanetary dust from comets and asteroids that give rise to shooting stars) reach the Earth's soil.
We are talking about particles of a few tenths to hundredths of a millimeter that have passed through the atmosphere and reached the Earth's surface.
Six expeditions in search of micrometeorites
To collect and analyze these micrometeorites, six expeditions led by CNRS researcher Jean Duprat have taken place over the last twenty years near the Franco-Italian station of Concordia (Dome C), which is located 1,100 kilometers off the coast of Adélie Land in the heart of Antarctica.
This is the main source of extraterrestrial matter on our planet, far ahead of larger objects such as meteorites, whose flow is less than ten tons per year.
Most micrometeorites probably come from comets (80%) and the rest from asteroids.
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The news
Every year, 5,200 tons of extraterrestrial material reach the surface of our planet
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
Zebrafish are a popular model animal, for example, but their eye-brain wiring is very different from that of a human. Modern fish do not have this type of eye-brain connection. This has allowed us to discover something that we did not know until now.
The going theory had been that this connection first developed in terrestrial creatures and, from there, moved to humans, where scientists believe it helps with our depth perception and 3D vision. But it seems that this is not what happened.
Previous connection to land animals
According to this new study, published in Science, this type of eye-brain connection predates animals that live on land. To carry out the study, Researchers used an innovative technique to view the nerves that connect the eyes to the brain in several different fish species.
In a zebrafish, each eye has a nerve that connects it to the opposite side of the fish's brain. That is, one nerve connects your left eye to the right hemisphere of your brain and another nerve connects your right eye to the left side of your brain. The other, more "older" fish do things differently. They have what are called ipsilateral or bilateral visual projections. Here, each eye has two nerve connections, one on each side of the brain, which is also what humans have.
Then the brain gar fish. In this microscope image, the left hemisphere of the brain lights up in green and the right hemisphere in magenta. However, at the bottom of the image, you can see nerves of both colors connecting to both hemispheres. This shows that both of the gar's eyes are connected to both sides of its brain, just like a human's eyes are.
According to the authors:
We are increasingly finding that many things that we think evolved relatively late are actually very old. We learn something about ourselves when we look at these strange fish and understand how old our own body parts are.
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The news
The sophisticated network of nerves that connect the eyes to the brain evolved 100 million years earlier than thought
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
Low fat diets men's testosterone levels decrease by 10-15%, according to a new study conducted at the University of Worcester and published in the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Low testosterone levels are linked to an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease. Healthy testosterone levels are also key to men's sports performance, mental health, and sexual health.
Hypogonadism since 1970
The study was a systematic review and meta-analysis, combining the results of six well-controlled studies with a total of 206 participants. These studies first put men on a high-fat diet (40% fat) and then transferred them to a low-fat diet (20% fat) and found that their testosterone levels decreased by 10-15% on average. Particularly bad were low-fat vegetarian diets that caused a decrease in testosterone of up to 26%.
A high intake of monounsaturated fats found in olive oil, avocados, and nuts can increase testosterone production. However, omega 6 polyunsaturated fats, found predominantly in vegetable oils, can damage the cells' ability to produce testosterone. This is because highly unsaturated fats, such as polyunsaturated fats, are more prone to oxidation, which causes cell damage.
Since the 1970s, there has been a decline in the average testosterone levels of men and women. hypogonadism rates (medically low testosterone) have increased.
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The news
Low-fat diets lower testosterone levels in men
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
According to a new investigation from UC Riverside in mice, exercise and a healthy diet in childhood leads to adults with larger brains and lower anxiety levels.
This study is the first to examine the combined and lasting effects of both factors when experienced early in life.
Long-term exercise and diet
To carry out the study, The researchers divided the young mice into four groups: those who had access to exercise, those who did not have access, those who ate a standard, healthy diet, and those who ate a Western diet.
Researchers determined that exercise early in life generally reduces anxious behaviors in adults. It also led to an increase in muscle and brain mass in adults. When fed "Western"-style diets high in fat and sugar, the mice not only gained weight, but they also became adults who preferred unhealthy foods.
Previously, the research team found that eating too much fat and sugar in childhood can alter the microbiome for life, even if they later eat healthier. In other words, boosting health in the first years of life is extremely important.
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The news
Healthier adults with less anxiety if they take care of their diet and exercise as children
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
Neuralink Corporation It's a company neurotechnology company specialized in the development of implantable brain-computer interfaces, also known as Brain-Machine Interfaces or BMI, founded by Elon Musk.
In the following video we can see how it is used by a macaque to play to the classic video game Pong, a video game from the first generation of video game consoles published by Atari, created by Nolan Bushnell and released on November 29, 1972.
Pong
A macaque monkey, named Pager, moving a cursor on a computer screen with neural activity using a fully implanted 1,024-electrode neural recording and data transmission device, called N1 Link, is what we can see in the following video:
The researchers implanted the Link in the hand and arm areas of the motor cortex, a part of the brain that is involved in planning and executing movements.
They placed Links bilaterally: one in the left motor cortex (which controls movements on the right side of the body) and another in the right motor cortex (which controls the left side of the body)
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The news
This macaque is able to play Pong with his mind thanks to Elon Musk's Neuralink
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.