A sleep-promoting circuit located deep in the primitive brainstem has revealed how we fall into deep sleep. Discovered by researchers at Harvard School of Medicine and the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, this is only the second "sleep node" identified in the mammalian brain whose activity appears to be both necessary and sufficient to produce deep sleep. Published online in August in Nature Neuroscience, the study demonstrates that fully half of all of the brain's sleep-promoting activity originates from the parafacial zone (PZ) in the brainstem. The brainstem is a primordial part of the brain that regulates basic functions necessary for survival, such as breathing, blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature.
A
new research has revealed about the giant holes in the electrically charged
layer of the Venus' atmosphere called the ionosphere. The findings
at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) provide additional
clues to understand Venus's atmosphere, which is made of carbon dioxide, and
how the planet interacts with the constant onslaught of solar wind from the
sun, and perhaps even what is lurking deep in its core.
The first humans who
will step foot on Mars are walking the Earth today. It
was 45 years ago that Neil Armstrong took the small step onto the surface of
the moon that changed the course of history. The years that followed saw a Space
Age of scientific, technological and human research, on which we have built the
modern era. We stand on a new horizon, poised to take the next giant
leap—deeper into the solar system. The Apollo missions blazed a path for human
exploration to the moon and today we are extending that path to near-Earth
asteroids, Mars and beyond.
AUSTIN, Texas — New research demonstrates that the six
electric fish lineages, all of which evolved independently, used essentially
the same genes and developmental and
cellular pathways to make an
electricity-generating organ for defense, predation, navigation and
communication. The work will be published June 27 in the journal Science. The
research was led by Michael Sussman of The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harold
Zakon of The University of Texas at Austin and Manoj Samanta of the Systemix
Institute in Redmond, Wash.
