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Peruvian researchers discover new species of miniature deer

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Pudera Carlae is the first deer species to be discovered in the 21st century and the first from the New World in over 60 years. Learn more about it here.

Pudera Carlae. Image credit: Sernanp.

The newly described deer species, Pudera Carlae, belongs to the Neotropical deer family, Odokoileini.

“Some questions regarding the phylogeny and taxonomy of Odocoileini, a group of 18 recognized extant species currently assigned to seven genera, remain unclear,” said Dr. Guillermo Delaire of the University of South Australia and his colleague.

“The few available phylogenetic analyzes indicate that some genera are not monophyletic and that species richness within groups is underestimated.”

“One genus that has both problems is the stocky, short-legged dwarf deer, Pudu”

“It has two species, the Northern Pudu (Pudu Mephisto File) from Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, and the Southern Pudu (Pudupuda) from southern Chile and neighboring Argentina.”

In a new study, the authors found that the Pudu Mephisto File species are actually two different species.

“One is distributed north of the Huancabamba depression from the northernmost part of Peru to the north (Ecuador and Colombia), while the other is endemic in Peru south of the Huancabamba depression and does not have a name yet, so we propose naming it Pudera Carlae”

“This is the first extant deer species described in the 21st century and the first discovered in the New World in over 60 years.”

The researchers also found that the Pudupuda type species of Pudu are not related to the two northern Pudu species.

“We revalidate the genus Pudera and assign the latter two species to it.”

The team’s paper was published in the mammal journal this month.

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Javier Barrio et al. Extant deer species first described in the 21st century and their reexamination Pudera (Artiodactyla). mammal journal, published online March 1, 2024. Doi: 10.1093/jmammal/gyae012

Source: www.sci.news

Astronomers discover floating crystals preventing cooling in high-mass white dwarf stars

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Astronomers have proposed a new theory to explain why a mysterious population of white dwarfs has stopped cooling for at least 8 billion years.

This diagram shows a white dwarf and the moon. Image credit: Giuseppe Parisi.

White dwarfs are the remains of stars without a nuclear energy source that gradually cool over billions of years, eventually freezing from the inside out to a solid state.

Recently, it was discovered that a population of frozen white dwarfs maintains a constant brightness for a period comparable to the age of the universe, indicating the existence of an unknown, powerful energy source that inhibits cooling.

“We find that the classical picture that all white dwarfs are dead stars is incomplete,” said astronomer Dr Simon Bruin from the University of Victoria.

“To stop these white dwarfs from cooling, we need some way to generate additional energy.”

“We didn’t know how this happened, but now we have an explanation for this phenomenon.”

The researchers say that in some white dwarfs, the dense plasma inside them doesn’t just freeze from the inside out.

Instead, the solid crystals that form when frozen tend to float because they are less dense than the liquid.

As the crystals float upwards, the heavier liquid moves downwards.

As heavy material is transported toward the star’s center, gravitational energy is released, and this energy is enough to interrupt the star’s cooling process for billions of years.

Dr Antoine Bedard, an astronomer at the University of Warwick, said: “This is the first time this transport mechanism has been observed in any type of star, and it’s very interesting because it’s not every day that a completely new astrophysical phenomenon is discovered.”

“We don’t know why this happens in some stars and not others, but it’s probably due to the star’s composition.”

“Some white dwarfs are formed by the merger of two different stars,” Dr Bruin said.

“When these stars collide to form white dwarfs, the star’s composition changes, allowing the formation of floating crystals.”

White dwarfs are routinely used as an indicator of age, and the cooler a white dwarf is, the older it is considered to be.

However, the extra delay in cooling seen in some white dwarfs means that some stars at certain temperatures may be billions of years older than previously thought.

“This new discovery will not only require a revision of astronomy textbooks, but will also require a reexamination of the processes astronomers use to determine the age of stellar populations,” Dr. Blouin said.

of the team paper Published in today’s diary Nature.

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A. Bedard other. Buoyant crystals stop the white dwarf from cooling. Nature, published online March 6, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07102-y

Source: www.sci.news

Astronomers discover the heaviest supermassive black hole pair ever measured

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Astronomers are gemini north telescope measured a binary supermassive black hole located within the elliptical galaxy B2 0402+379.

Artist's impression of the supermassive black hole binary in elliptical galaxy B2 0402+379. Image credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. daSilva / M. Zamani.

The pair of compact objects at the center of B2 0402+379 are the only supermassive black hole binaries ever resolved in enough detail that both objects can be seen separately.

It holds the record for the smallest distance ever directly measured – just 24 light years.

While this close separation portends a strong merger, further research reveals that the pair has been stuck at this distance for more than 3 billion years, raising questions. What is the holdup?

To better understand the dynamics of this system and its stalled merger, Stanford University professor Roger Romani and his colleagues turned to archival data from Gemini North. Gemini multi-object spectrometer (GMOS) This allowed them to determine the speed of stars near the black hole.

“The excellent sensitivity of GMOS allowed us to map the increasing velocity of stars as they approach the center of the galaxy. This allowed us to estimate the total mass of black holes present there.” Professor Romani said.

The authors estimate that the binary star's mass is a whopping 28 billion times that of the Sun, making the pair the most massive binary black hole ever measured.

This measurement not only provides valuable background on the formation of binary systems and the history of their host galaxies, but also confirms the long-held belief that the mass of supermassive binary black holes plays a key role in preventing potential mergers. This supports the theory.

“The data archive provided by the International Gemini Observatory holds a goldmine of untapped scientific discoveries,” said Dr. Martin Still, NSF program director for the International Gemini Observatory.

“Measuring the mass of this extreme supermassive binary black hole is an awe-inspiring example of the potential impact of new research exploring its rich archive.”

Understanding how this binary formed can help predict if and when it will merge. Also, some clues indicate that the pair formed through multiple galaxy mergers.

First, B2 0402+379 is a “fossil cluster,” meaning it is the result of an entire galaxy cluster's worth of stars and gas merging into a single giant galaxy.

Additionally, the presence of two supermassive black holes, coupled with their large combined mass, suggests that they resulted from the merger of multiple smaller black holes from multiple galaxies.

After galaxies merge, supermassive black holes do not collide head-on. Instead, they start slingshotting each other as they settle into a certain trajectory.

Each time a black hole passes, energy is transferred from it to the surrounding stars.

Losing their energy, the pair are dragged together, and gravitational radiation takes over, merging them just a few light years away.

This process has been observed directly in pairs of stellar-mass black holes, first documented by the detection of gravitational waves in 2015, but has never been observed in binaries of supermassive black holes.

With new knowledge about the system's extremely large mass, astronomers concluded that it would take a very large number of stars to slow down the binary enough to make its orbits so close together. .

In the process, the black hole seems to have blown away almost all the material around it, depleting the galaxy's center of stars and gas.

The merger of the two companies stalled in the final stages, as there was nothing left to further slow the companies' trajectory.

“Galaxies with lighter black hole pairs usually seem to have enough stars and mass to quickly merge the two,” Professor Romani said.

“The pair is so massive that we needed a lot of stars and gas to get the job done. But binaries scour the galaxy for such material, causing it to stagnate, making it impossible for our research to do so.” has been made accessible.”

It remains to be determined whether the pair will overcome stasis and eventually merge on a timescale of millions of years, or remain in orbit forever in limbo.

If they merged, the resulting gravitational waves would be 100 million times more powerful than those produced by the merger of stellar-mass black holes.

The pair could potentially conquer that final distance via another galactic merger. In that case, additional material, or potentially a third black hole, could be injected into the galaxy, slowing the pair's orbits enough for a merger.

However, given that B2 0402+379 is a fossil cluster, further galaxy mergers are unlikely.

“We're looking forward to tracking the core of B2 0402+379 to find out how much gas is present,” said Tirth Surti, an undergraduate at Stanford University.

“This should give us more insight into whether supermassive black holes may eventually merge or remain stuck as binaries.”

of result will appear in astrophysical journal.

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Tirth Surti other. 2024. Central kinematics and black hole mass of 4C+37.11. APJ 960, 110; doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad14fa

Source: www.sci.news

Revolutionary Method for Ending Pregnancy Nausea Quickly: Discover the Morning Sickness Cure

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We have all experienced vomiting at some stage in our lives. Whether it’s due to a nasty bout of food poisoning or the well-known norovirus that infects the population episodically. And we can all agree that it’s scary.

But imagine what it would do to you physically, mentally, and emotionally if you were to expect constant nausea and vomiting at a critical stage in your life.this is the reality for them
4 in 5 women experience nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. Even mild cases can cause unpleasant symptoms such as nausea, loss of appetite, and vomiting.

for 3% of women develop a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum.things get worse and require hospitalization and treatment.

According to the Office for National Statistics, in 2022 this will result in: 20,000 women hospitalized.

But until recently, little was known about the causes of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the more nausea and vomiting you have, the healthier your pregnancy, and even suggests that it is related to the number of babies you have.

However, real-world evidence shows this is not true. In fact, nausea and vomiting can vary widely in severity and pattern during pregnancy.

Often referred to as “morning sickness,” nausea and vomiting during pregnancy can occur at any time of the day or night. Usually it’s worse for the first 12 weeks, then it calms down. However, for many women, it lasts throughout the pregnancy.

Read more about women’s health:

However, after more than 20 years of research in this field, a breakthrough has been made that identifies a causal relationship. This was promoted by Dr. Malena Fezo, a geneticist at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.

Fezo was inspired to pursue this career after suffering from severe nausea and vomiting during her second pregnancy in 1999. She was unable to eat or drink without vomiting, and she rapidly lost weight and became so weak that she could no longer stand or walk.

However, doctors were skeptical that she might be exaggerating her symptoms to get attention. Fezo was eventually hospitalized and she miscarried at 15 weeks.

Fezo will conduct genetic research on previously pregnant women in collaboration with 23andMe, a private company that allows individuals to send samples of their DNA to determine health status and insights into their ancestry. did.

She identified a link with a woman who suffered from severe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy (requiring an intravenous fluid). and a variant of the gene encoding a protein named GDF15, a hormone that acts on the brain stem.

This association pinpointed the need for further research to understand the role of GDF15 protein in pregnancy.

GDF15 is secreted by the placenta during the first two trimesters of pregnancy. It also likely plays a role in preventing the mother from biologically rejecting the baby, which is essential to allowing the pregnancy to continue. However, GDF15 has been shown to regulate physiological body weight and appetite through the brain. This substance is produced in excess in cancer patients who suffer from severe appetite and weight loss.

In addition to previous research, research led by Fejzo and the University of Cambridge Professor Stephen O'Rahilly We found that the level of GDF15 was high. Seen in women with severe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. However, the effects of this hormone appear to depend on the woman's susceptibility and her exposure to GDF15 before pregnancy. Women who received higher levels of exposure before pregnancy had higher levels of the GDF15 hormone but did not have symptoms of nausea or vomiting.

It has been hypothesized that long-term exposure to GDF15 before pregnancy may have a protective effect and reduce a woman’s sensitivity to the hormonal surge caused by fetal development.

This exposure relationship is very unique and provides more understanding and knowledge as well as the potential that women may be desensitized by increasing their exposure to hormones before pregnancy. It also suggests possible treatments. Just like some people treat food allergies with controlled exposure therapy.

Many of the common symptoms affecting women, such as nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, are poorly understood despite their very high incidence. Women’s healthcare is not a niche, and there is much to understand and learn through this type of research.

Read more:

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Robot explores deep sea to discover new species with dodecahedral design

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Robot dodecahedron mounted on a submersible (circled area)

brennan phillips

The robotic dodecahedron can capture fragile deep-sea animals, collect tissue samples, and build three-dimensional scans of the creatures, potentially speeding up the cataloging of deep-sea life. Up to 66% of marine species are still unknown to science.

brennan phillips RAD2 Sampler and colleagues at the University of Rhode Island have developed the RAD2 Sampler, which is designed to be mounted on any submersible to collect fresh tissue samples in situ from living animals. They hope this will reveal more about the creature than existing techniques, which are typically exposed to stress when pulled up from the depths.

RAD2 is a dodecahedron with an internal volume large enough to hold a basketball. It can be folded and unfolded on command to temporarily capture organisms for detailed examination and take small tissue samples that are stored directly on board the submarine for later genetic analysis. It is designed to.

The ultimate goal is to take a small biopsy and release the animal relatively unscathed, but RAD2's current technique (called tissue cutting) is “a little more crude,” Phillips said.

RAD2 has already been tested on two expeditions, collecting up to 14 tissue samples a day at a depth of around 1200 meters. “We could get small pieces of tissue, and sometimes we could get whole animals,” he says. “It depended on how big it was. So I can't say we've been able to release the animal unharmed after that, but we're moving towards that.”

The robot sampler is also equipped with a 4K resolution video camera to capture high-quality footage of the animal in motion, and a virtual model of the animal is constructed by various 3D scanning devices. In the future, Phillips said, he might be able to put sensors on each of his 12 sides of the dodecahedron and take different measurements of living things at once.

Phillips called other sampling methods “outdated” and said they essentially require people to manually put things into jars for later analysis, or use submersibles to do the same thing. Masu.

Preservation at the point of collection using RAD2 improves the quality of tissue samples and also allows researchers to detect which genes are expressed, further informing animal behavior and physiology. Phillips said it could shed some light. “This is a luxury item,” he says. “This is the best you can get with this animal, better than anyone we’ve ever had.”

eva stewart Researchers at the University of Southampton in the UK say that while digital data on deep-sea life can be a useful tool for research, there is no substitute for capturing and preserving entire samples.

“There are thousands of type specimens here. [at the university]” says Stewart.Some of them were collected by Swedish scientists carl linnaeusShe died in 1778 and says: Once you have the specimen, you are done. Even as our science changes, we can keep coming back to it. ”

But Stewart said underwater scans are useful for gelatinous and other delicate animals that are difficult to collect intact, and for how the creatures behave in their natural environment, rather than after being hoisted onto the deck of a boat. I agree that it may be helpful to understand.

“We've been conducting research to examine gene expression in sea cucumbers because we want to understand how sea cucumbers behave when they're stressed or affected by things like climate change,” says Stewart. he says. “But when you collect them and bring them to the surface, it's stressful. So being able to harvest tissue from them in a more natural way means you know what their natural baseline is, so they can It means we may be able to see more clearly what happens when placed in different environments.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Discover the Thrills of Prince of Persia: Lost Crown – Conquer a New Gaming Empire

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FA gigantic statue, frozen at the moment of destruction, is fixed above the entrance to Mount Kahu. In mid-autumn, fragments of shattered granite heads hang. In the castle’s intricate, trap-filled hallways, some characters haven’t aged a day in 100 years, while characters who arrived hours before you have already died of old age. Time does not follow normal rules in the Fortress’ cursed halls. If you want to complete Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, you’d better learn that lesson quickly.

These quirks of time lend themselves well to a game that reimagines and combines multiple generations of a series dating back to 1989. Developer Jordan Mechner’s original Prince of Persia was his 2D platformer that had you navigating a castle filled with fake floors, guillotines, and swords. -Swirl the guards around to fight the Grand Vizier. Meanwhile, in the hands of developer Ubisoft, later reimaginings of the series saw the titular hero gain the ability to control time, suspending and reversing time to solve puzzles in 3D worlds, and more. I was able to avoid the trap. With The Lost Crown, Ubisoft returns to the side-view perspective of early games while incorporating the time-lapse powers of later titles, creating a vast labyrinthine world littered with enemies and traps to overcome. is created.

Labyrinth…Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Photo: Ubisoft

You play Sargon, one of Persia’s legendary defenders, as you hunt down Prince Ghassan and his captors. You follow the group up to Cuff Mountain. The kidnappers aim to force the prince to abdicate there. You must reach the prince before they do. Sargon can jump through holes, swing from pillar to pillar, and jump between the walls of narrow shafts to climb the levels of the Calf, but even this athletic ability only allows him access to a small portion of the fortress. In many cases, you will be faced with gaps that are too large. Ledges too high to jump, ledges too high to grab, locked doors too far to attack with your sword. But as you discover the secrets of the mountain and defeat more bosses, you learn how to run through the air, double jump, and fix your body to a point in space from which you can teleport back. Combine these powers and you’ll be able to perform intricate aerial acrobatics and explore all-new districts of Calf.

The Lost Crown is a reimagining of Prince of Persia as a Metroidvania, and the series feels at home in the genre’s ever-expanding universe. You repeat the same areas of the map over and over again, discovering new secrets in old rooms thanks to the powers you acquire. Treasure chests that were previously out of reach will fall into your hands, locked doors will open before your eyes, and bosses that were too fast or too strong will also become vulnerable to your attacks.

That said, The Lost Crown has a tough difficulty curve, with later platforming sections and bosses requiring you to memorize tough attack patterns and develop the reflexes to pull off complex combinations of jumps, dodges, and parries. is required. Hitting these skill walls can be a frustrating experience, especially in a game where the joy comes from putting together uninterrupted acrobatics and combos of attacks.

However, the moment you encounter a frustrating blocker, you can explore other parts of the calf. Finding new power usually opens up opportunities across the mountain, not just one area. You can also upgrade Sargon’s weapons to make them more powerful, purchase health potion upgrades, and change the configuration of your amulet. These unlockable items allow you to enhance your hero’s abilities, for example increasing his health when he is at low health or reducing the damage he takes from poison attacks. If you find a boss that you can’t defeat, it’s comforting to know that you can make the fight easier by replacing some of the amulets you bring into battle.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is not a sequel or prequel to other games, but a new journey for the series, and its first step is a leap of faith. Not only are the most notable elements of the series’ various iterations (setting, traps, time forces, combat) all naturalized in this new form, but they are also the best of the newly selected games. That means you can play it like one of the games. This genre is as good a game as Metroid Dread or Hollow Knight, not an imitation of them. It’s been 13 years since the last completely new Prince of Persia game. If this is a new direction, I’m excited to see where it lands.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown will be released on PC, PS4/5, Switch and Xbox platforms on January 18th for £50.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Researchers Discover the Root Cause of a Historic, Lethal Climate Shift Millions of Years in the Past

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Scientists have linked mass extinctions and climate change over the past 260 million years to massive volcanic eruptions and Earth’s astronomical cycles. The study highlights the role of CO2 emissions in climate change and reveals a complex relationship between Earth’s geology and position in space that is distinct from modern anthropogenic climate change.

New research reveals that Earth’s geological history is tied not only to the planet’s interior, but also to its astronomical movements.

The team of scientists concluded that it has occurred over the past 260 million years and that the mass extinction of life caused during these periods was primarily caused by large-scale volcanic eruptions and the resulting environmental crisis.

The analysis published in the magazine earth science reviews indicate that these eruptions released large amounts of carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in extreme greenhouse climate warming and creating lethal or deadly conditions on Earth.

Astronomical cycles and Earth’s climate

Importantly, these phenomena occur every 26 to 33 million years and coincide with significant changes in the orbits of the solar system’s planets, which follow the same periodic pattern, the researchers added.

“Earth’s geological processes, long thought to be strictly determined by events inside the planet, may actually be controlled by the solar system and Earth’s astronomical cycles. milky way Galaxy,” says Professor Michael Lampino. new york university Department of Biology and senior author of the paper. “Importantly, these forces have converged many times in Earth’s past to predict dramatic changes in climate.”

The researchers, including Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science and geologist Sederia Rodriguez of Barnard College, say their conclusions are unrelated to climate change in the 20th and 21st centuries, and that scientists believe that human It warns that it shows that it is caused by activity. The last studied pulse of volcanic eruptions occurred about 16 million years ago.

But they added that the analysis nevertheless supports the well-established impact of carbon dioxide emissions on climate warming.

Volcanic eruptions and geological phenomena

Researchers have identified Continental Flood Basalt (CFB) eruptions, the largest volcanic eruptions on Earth with lava flows covering nearly 500,000 square miles, and other major geological events over the past 260 million years. focused. These include ocean anoxic events (periods during which the Earth’s oceans are depleted of oxygen, thereby producing toxic water) and the hyperthermal climate pulse, a sudden increase in global temperature and the resulting ocean and periods of mass extinction of non-marine life. .

They found that CFB eruptions frequently coincided with these other deadly geological phenomena, revealing the larger impact of volcanic activity. Its relevance to astronomy is evidenced by its regular, multimillion-year cycles of volcanic activity and extreme weather events, and its similarities with the known orbital periods of the Earth in our solar system and Milky Way galaxy.

The authors found that the correspondence between geological and astrophysical cycles was too close to be a mere coincidence. The big problem they were left with was how The astronomical movements of the planets disrupt the geological engines inside the Earth.

“This is an unexpected connection and predicts a convergence of both astronomy and geology. Events that occur on Earth occur within the context of our astronomical environment,” Rampino said. Observe.

References: “Periods of ~32.5 My and ~26.2 My in correlated episodes of continental flood basalts (CFBs), hyperthermal climate pulses, anoxic oceans, and mass extinctions over the past 260 My years: geological and astronomical cycles. Relationships” by Michael R. Rampino, Ken Caldeira, and Cederia Rodriguez, September 25, 2023. earth science reviews. DOI: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2023.104548

Source: scitechdaily.com

Researchers discover new method for treating life-threatening liver condition

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New research reveals the role of omega-3 fatty acids in the fight against non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)

Using innovative analytical techniques, researchers determined that omega-3 targets betacellulin, a protein that contributes to liver fibrosis. This discovery opens new avenues for NASH drug research and highlights the importance of omega-3s in the diet for liver health.

A recent study conducted by Oregon State University revealed new insights into how certain polyunsaturated fatty acids, particularly omega-3s, fight serious liver conditions. This discovery paves the way for research into new drugs for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), for which there is currently no FDA-approved treatment.

Scientists including Natalia Shulzhenko, Andrei Morgan, and Donald Jump at Oregon State University used a technique known as multiomic network analysis to find that omega-3 supplements can be used to treat nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. This mechanism involves betacellulin, a protein growth factor that contributes to liver fibrosis and other serious liver conditions.

The results of this research have recently been published in EMBO molecular medicine. NASH is associated with a disease known as metabolic syndrome, and it is crucial to understand the role of omega-3s in the fight against NASH.

In this study, scientists used both a mouse model and human liver transcriptome data to determine that omega-3 PUFAs reduce, or downregulate, betacellulin in both mice and humans with NASH. This discovery not only significantly advances our understanding of how NASH begins and progresses, but also opens new doors for pharmaceutical research. Researchers say the discovery of betacellulin as a new drug target may help explore precision medicine approaches to NASH treatment and liver cancer prevention by using specific omega-3 PUFAs.

In addition to dietary supplements, omega-3 PUFAs can be found in cold-water fatty fish such as salmon and mackerel, as well as in some nuts, seeds, and vegetable oils. Omega-3 PUFAs are essential fatty acids that are not produced by the body but must be obtained from the diet.

Reference:

Jyothi Padiadpu, Manuel Garcia-Jaramillo, Nolan K Newman, Written by Jacob W Pederson, Richard Rodrigues, Zhipeng Lee, Sekhavir Singh, Philippe Monnier, Giorgio Trinchieri, Kevin Brown, Amiran K. Zutsev, Natalia Shulzhenko, Donald B. Jump, Andrei Morgan, 2023 October 20th, EMBO molecular medicine. DOI: 10.15252/emm.202318367

Jyoti Padyap, a postdoctoral fellow in the OSU College of Pharmacy, is the study’s lead author. Other Oregon State researchers who contributed to the paper were Nolan Newman, Richard Rodriguez, Sehajivir Singh, Manuel Garcia-Jaramillo, Jacob Pederson, Jipeng Li, Philip Monnier, and Kevin Brown.

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Source: scitechdaily.com

Researchers discover the science behind our increased appetite for certain foods

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Researchers have made an interesting discovery about the impact of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) found in prepared foods on hunger and health. AGEs, which are produced during cooking processes like baking and frying, enhance the appeal of food but also have negative effects on our well-being. Studies using nematodes have shown that AGEs lead to increased consumption and reduced lifespan, emphasizing the importance of choosing healthier food options.

Scientists at Buck have identified a mechanism that may explain why consuming delicious yet unhealthy food increases our desire to eat more. Overeating and weight gain can result from various factors, including the ready availability of flavorful, high-calorie foods. The researchers at Buck have found that AGEs, a type of chemical found in processed and prepared foods, contribute to increased hunger and a decreased ability to make healthy food choices. This research sheds light on the reasons behind our testing abilities for these foods.

According to Pankaj Kapahi, the lead author of the research study, “This research involving tiny worms has significant implications for human dietary choices and our tendency to overeat certain foods.” He added, “Modern processed foods rich in AGEs are tempting to eat, but we know very little about their long-term effects on our health.” The study was recently published in the journal eLife.

An evolutionary perspective suggests that humans have evolved mechanisms that encourage us to consume as much food as possible when it is readily available. This is because excess calories are stored as fat, which can be utilized during periods of fasting. The preference for flavorful foods, particularly those high in sugar, has been favored by natural selection. However, the mechanisms that make it difficult to resist such foods have remained unclear. AGEs are metabolic byproducts that occur naturally during sugar metabolism in cells but are also formed during cooking processes and are found in many processed foods. AGEs provide the appealing brown color that occurs during cooking, making food more appetizing and harder to resist.

While the Maillard reaction, which occurs when sugars and proteins interact with heat, is well-known for making food taste good, it can have detrimental effects on the body. The resulting AGEs cause inflammation and oxidative damage, which contribute to various health issues such as blood vessel stiffness, high blood pressure, kidney disease, cancer, and neurological problems. Accumulation of these metabolic byproducts in different organs is likely one of the main factors in the aging process of organs and organisms overall. It is due to these harmful effects that researchers are studying the impact of AGEs on health.

Even tiny worms used in the Kapahi lab were not immune to the allure and harm of AGEs. Researchers observed that these chemicals not only caused diseases and reduced lifespan but also increased the worms’ appetite for the same substances. The researchers aimed to understand the underlying mechanism by which AGEs promote excessive eating. Through their study, they identified a signaling pathway mediated by specific AGE molecules that promotes feeding and neurodegeneration. They also found that worms lacking the ability to process even naturally occurring AGEs had significantly shorter lifespans. The study is now expanding to mice, where researchers will investigate the relationship between AGEs and fat metabolism.

Understanding this signaling pathway may provide insights into overeating caused by modern diets rich in AGEs. This research highlights the role of AGE accumulation in diseases such as obesity and neurodegeneration and its association with the global rise in age-related diseases.

The key takeaway from their work is a profound realization that our food intake is often controlled by the food itself. To address this, the researchers have personally changed their diets, practicing intermittent fasting to allow the body to utilize fat instead of sugar. They also recommend consuming whole grains to maintain stable glucose levels and utilizing moist heat instead of dry cooking methods, such as steaming or frying. Adding acids when cooking, like when grilling, slows down the formation of AGEs.

In conclusion, this study provides valuable insights into the impact of AGEs found in processed and prepared foods on hunger, overeating, and overall health. It highlights the need for individuals to be conscious of their dietary choices and opt for healthier alternatives to reduce the negative effects of AGE accumulation in the body.

Source: scitechdaily.com