Nerdy Science Blog

Paleontologists found a fossil of 10 million-year-old bird in Ocucaje, in the Ica region of Peru’s southern coast.  The uncovered fossil was a bird head, which is the most complete cranium ever found for the Pelagornithidae family.  However the remains were hard to find.  The bird had teeth at the tip of beak which could be used for preying, and also it had large wings.  It was estimated such bird could have a wingspan up to 19.7 feet and fed mostly on fish from Pacific Ocean.  The bird extinct 2.5 million year ago due to climate change.  The 15.7 inches fossil will be displayed in the Peru’s Natural History Museum in Lima on this Saturday.

The dig site is a desert coast and the arid climate had preserved many fossils.  The paleontologists also found remains of whales, sharks and turtles.

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Systolic blood pressure is the intracardiac pressure which is created by the systolic contraction of a cardiac chamber.

The word ‘systole’ indicates the contraction of heart chambers, which will cause the blood inside the chambers to move along the blood vessels to the various parts of our body. Both the atrial and ventricular of the heart undergo systole but in the case of discussing systolic blood pressure, the left ventricle of the heart will be the main object of discussion. When the systole of left ventricle happens, the blood will be pushed through the aortic valve into the aorta and then to its branches.

This pressure which is created by the systole could be measured by using a sphygmomanometer (the most common way) and will be reported in millimetres of mercury (mmHg). A highest arterial blood pressure will be reached during each ventricular cycle (at the beginning of the cycle). The range of normal systolic pressure is around 90 to 119 mmHg. High blood pressure means a systolic pressure of more than 140 mmHg. Isolated systolic high blood pressure is also possible. It often do not cause any symptoms but if left uncontrolled could lead ato stroke, heart attack, kidney damage, congestive heart failure and others ischaemic heart diseases.

Systolic pressure is not static. It undergoes changes when influenced by other factors such as stress, drugs, disease and exercise. The difference of systolic and diastolic pressures is called pulse pressure. Today, modern medicine found out that high diastolic pressure, high systolic pressure and high pulse pressure are risk factors that could cause persistent hypertension.

Besides hypertension, hypotension is also a medical concern. However, such condition are diagnosed mainly when the hypotension (low of blood pressure) causes symptoms such as fainting, dizziness and sometime even shock.

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Scientists at Ohio State University identified a gene that involves in weight gain, which will eventually lead to obesity and also associated disorders.  Scientists studied mice fed with high-fat diet and also regular diet.  It was found that mice with high-fat diet induced production of protein kinase C beta (PKC beta) by the gene in the fat cells of the mice.  Mice which had PKC beta removed through genetic engineering had little weight gain and did not have health effects like those with the active PKC beta gene.  The study will be published in the Journal Hepatology.  This finding can possibly help scientists to come up with a weight loss therapeutic strategy.

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What is Eppendorf Tube?

Eppendorf tubes are microcentrifuge tubes (a.k.a. microfuge tubes) are small little cute plastic containers with conical bottoms with a cap on the top.  They are usually used for storage or centrifuge for small amount of liquid.   Many chemists and biologists used them in the lab.  These tubes are cold tolerance (as low as -80 °C to liquid nitrogen temperatures) or tolerant with organic solvents like chloroform.  They are called Eppendorf tubes because Eppendoft is a major manufacturer of microcentrifuge tubes.

Muntedkowhai store is now selling t-shirts featuring with Eppendoft tubes.

Above is a medium American Apparel pale blue tee shirt.  Honestly, that Eppendorf tube doesn’t look like tube to many people.  It looks more like a condom with an attached cap on top.

This is mustard Yellow t-shirt in small size.

This is another small t-shirt printed in pink.

If you are selling any science related products, please do not hesitate to contact me.  However some products I have limited knowledge in them, so I’d appreciate if you can write a guest post featuring your products (for free!).

Also, please do not forget to subscribe to Nerdy Science Feed before you miss any interesting or dumb posts.

DNA’s function is not fixed as previously thought.  The interaction of environment and DNA will define its function.  In a study involves 36 brains, scientists from McGill University and Douglas Institute found that maternal care affects the function of the genes.  The subjects included 12 suicide victims with abuse history, 12 suicide victims without abuse history, and 12 controls.  Epigenetic markings in the brains of the abused group were different from other group.  Abused group had its DNA altered and influence the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function.  HPA is a stress-response that will increase the risk of suicide.  Same results were shown in rats.

Do you see a connection between child abuse and attempted suicide?  I guess Harry Potter got his genes altered at his uncle’s house.

The study was published in February 22 Nature Neuroscience.  Authors included Patrick O McGowan, Aya Sasaki, Ana C D’Alessio, Sergiy Dymov, Benoit Labonté, Moshe Szyf, Gustavo Turecki, and Michael J Meaney.  The study was supported from by grants from the US National Institutes of Health, Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Human Frontiers Science Program, and a Maternal Adversity.

Reference:

McGowan, P.O., Sasaki, A., D’Alessio, A.C., Dymov, S., Labonté, B., Szyf, M., Turecki, G. and Meaney, M.J. (2009), Epigenetic regulation of the glucocorticoid receptor in human brain associates with childhood abuse, Nature Neuroscience, doi:10.1038/nn.2270.

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An R-rated motion picture, in the view of the Rating Board, contains some adult material. An R-rated motion picture may include adult themes, adult activity, hard language, intense or persistent violence, sexually-oriented nudity, drug abuse or other elements, so that parents are counselled to take this rating very seriously. Children under 17 are not allowed to attend R-rated motion pictures unaccompanied by a parent or adult guardian. Parents are strongly urged to find out more about R-rated motion pictures in determining their suitability for their children. Generally, it is not appropriate for parents to bring their young children with them to R-rated motion pictures.

From: Motion Picture Association of America

A four-year study of 1,246 sixth-grade students in Massachusetts conducted by researchers from University of Massachusetts Medical School showed that kids who watched R-rated movies during youth are more likely to smoke.  The data was derived from second Development and Assessment of Nicotine Dependence in Youth, and the individuals were interviewed 11 times from 2002 to 2006.

Researchers suggested that these kids had the parental permission of the smoking activities, which influenced them to smoke as strong as having friends that smoke.  It was also suggested that the smoking scenes in the movies may play a role in their smoking behaviour.  The impression that cigarettes are easy to obtain in youth is more likely to cause them to smoke.

The study was published in recent issue of American Journal of Preventive Medicine.  The authors are Chyke A. Doubeni, Wenjun Li, Hassan Fouayzi and Joseph R. DiFranza.  The study was funded by the Substance Abuse Policy Research Program (SAPRP) of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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Good news for egg-lovers again, researchers do not only prove that eggs do not increase your blood cholesterol, but also link to lowering high blood pressure.

Kaustav Majumber and Jianping Wu at University of Alberta, Canada, discovered that eggs can reduce hypertension.  Eggs reacted like ACE-inhibiting prescription drugs, which lowered the blood pressure.  They discovered that stomach and small intestines reacted by producing proteins when eggs were consumed.  These proteins released react in the body in a similar manner like the blood pressure medication.  Researchers also found that fried eggs had more ACE-like inhibiting activity than boiled eggs.  The discovery was published in American Chemical Association’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

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“Why?” is a Korean science comic book series.  The series had 20 million copies sold over the last six years, which is a new record in the local publishing industry.  “Why?” is published by a local children’s books publisher, YeaRimDang.  Cho Young-sun, the cartoonist of the series, tried to combine illustration and accurate knowledge to deliver the facts to children, hence aid them in studying.  The main readers of the 50-volume science comic books are kindergarten children and elementary school students.  The comic was first published in 1989 with Korean title, but change to English title “Why?” in 2001 as the company is keen in the overseas markets.  The series had been copyrighted to China, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Russia and France, and 1.3 million copies had been published.  United States and Japan will be the company’s next target.

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Generex Biotechnology Corporation was a company engaged in drug delivery for metabolic diseases through the oral cavity.  Crave-NX 7-Day Diet Aid Spray was unveiled by the company on 18 February.  The spray was said to regulate the cravings for junk food, hence having a healthy weight loss.  The commercialized spray was orange-flavoured.  By spraying and administering into the mouth, it can spray the crave away throughout the day and stop consuming extra calories.  The spray was clinically tested, and there are 20 servings per bottle.  Each serving had two calories and fat-free.  It was estimated US weight loss market had a total of USD59bn in 2007.

Other products of Generex are BaBOOM!™ Energy Spray, Glucose RapidSpray™ and Generex Oral-lyn™.

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Tomek Pietek designed this cycling Muscle Skin Suit.  This looks definitely good on fit people and makes people look like some superheroes.  I wonder how this suit will look if it is on the unfit ones.  Talking about superheroes, I wonder the TV series “Heroes” will have an individual with a damn strong common sense as one’s super power.  Says who common sense can’t be a type of super power?  A lot of people do not have common sense.

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