3.5 Intellectual The Intellectual
Keep up to date with cutting-edge progress
Take control of the week's major tech news in one hand
Written by | Boiling water cabbage egg fried rice Huang Yuxiang
Editor-in-charge | Yu Qi
● ● ●
1
The mystery of the origin of Venus in Willendorff is revealed
Image source: Venus of Willendorf is a Paleolithic sculpture excavated in 1908 near Wilendorf, Austria, carved from a piece of granular limestone with a red ochre color. The material and origin of this sculpture has long been an unsolved mystery. Recently, a study published in Nature Science Reports revealed the answer. Anthropologists from the University of Vienna used a microcomputer to tomograph its interior to obtain images with a resolution of up to 11.5 microns, and they found that the interior of Venus looked uneven at all, with remnants of small shells from the Jurassic period. None of the samples within a radius of 200 km from Villeendorf matched it. The analysis eventually revealed that its material was consistent with a sample from near Lake Garda in northern Italy, meaning it had "traveled" along the Danube from south of the Alps to north of the Alps. The study also provides clues to the mobility of the Gravettians before the last glacial period. Article links:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-06799-z
2
When finances are strained, buying and buying does not bring happiness
Image source: pixabay Buy Buy Buy is often seen as a modern way of decompression. However, recent research from Duke University Business School of Business shows that whether it's buying a new shirt, a new computer, or taking a trip, when people feel financially stressed, they get very little "buying pleasure."
Here's why: This feeling of financial strain causes people to rethink their shopping and think about what else they can do with that money, that is, people think about the opportunity cost of that money over and over again. So every time they think about that purchase, they're less than happy with what they ended up buying. For merchants, this also affects the company's sales, as financially strapped consumers leave worse reviews. On the other hand, financial pressures can force people to want more "compensatory consumption", that is, to obtain happiness through the purchase behavior itself rather than the demand for the goods, but the results often backfire. Article links:
https://academic.oup.com/jcr/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jcr/ucab075/6482750
3
Exposure to these substances during pregnancy may affect the neurodevelopment of offspring
Image source: pixabay endocrine interferon (EDC) is a chemical widely found in plastics, pesticides, pesticides and other chemicals, which can interfere with the body's hormone regulation, but its harm is far more than that. Scientists from Italy recently established a methodology to systematically assess the risks posed by EDC and suggest that mothers exposed to a mixture of EDCs during pregnancy may cause delays in the language function of their offspring. First, the team measured the levels of the EDC mixture in the blood and urine of pregnant women and combined them with the language development levels of their offspring. They then designed organoid and animal model experiments to study the effects of EDC mixtures on endocrine regulatory pathways and which gene expressions were dysregulated. Ultimately, the researchers concluded that up to 54 percent of pregnant women were exposed to higher levels of EDC during pregnancy, and that the risk of delayed development of language function in their offspring was up to 3.3 times higher than in the control group. Article links:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abe8244
4
These diseases may be precursors to Alzheimer's disease
Image source: pixabay To this day, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is still difficult to overcome, is one of the major challenges to human health, and is believed to account for 60% to 70% of dementia cases worldwide. So, are there any signals that can be used as precursors to the onset of AD before it becomes apparent?
Researchers from the Paris Brain Institute conducted a study on this problem, and after systematically analyzing the health records of nearly 80,000 patients, they found that AD patients developed some common symptoms 15 years before the onset of the disease and 2 years before the onset of the disease. Among them, in the 2-10 years before the diagnosis, the appearance of anxiety, depression, constipation, spinal disease and memory loss was significantly related to the onset of AD, and in the 2 years before the diagnosis, in addition to the above symptoms, 12 symptoms such as hypothyroidism, sleep disorders, and cerebrovascular diseases were significantly related to the diagnosis of AD. Among these conditions, depression, anxiety, constipation, and abnormal weight loss should be given special attention. Article links:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589750021002752?via%3Dihub
5
Immediate! This technique allows paralyzed patients to walk again
Image source: Jimmy James Ravier, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) In order to help patients with spinal cord injury regain the ability to move in their daily lives, researchers have explored the field of spinal cord electrical stimulation for three decades, but the long recovery time has hindered the clinical popularity of this technology. This technology has recently ushered in a major breakthrough: researchers combined spinal cord stimulation technology with artificial intelligence, optimized electrode placement, and built a more precise model of electrode control, which yielded miraculous results in three completely paralyzed volunteers. The independent motor ability of the three volunteers was greatly improved within a day after receiving the electrical stimulation, not only able to regain control of their trunk movements, standing, walking, and even completing more complex sports such as cycling and swimming. However, this recovery effect requires continuous stimulation of the electrodes and can only be applied at this stage to patients who retain at least 6 cm of healthy spinal cord at the injured site. Article links:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01663-5
6
"Miracle drug" metformin is a molecular mechanism for delaying aging
Image source: pixabay metformin as a drug to fight diabetes has been used safely for more than 60 years, but in recent years people have gradually discovered that this small molecule may also have miraculous effects in treating tumors and delaying aging. Recently, the team led by Professor Lin Shengcai of Xiamen University made a breakthrough discovery in the field of molecular mechanisms of metformin to delay aging: researchers found that low-dose metformin binds to the PEN2 protein located on the lysosomal membrane after entering human cells, promoting the latter's binding to ATP6AP1, which regulates lysosomal pH, thereby activating the AMPK signaling pathway. The researchers further elucidated that this pathway plays an important role in maintaining both hepatocytes and small intestinal cell function. Article links:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04431-8
Plate editor| Ginger Duck