Neural stem cells generate new neurons throughout life in the mammalian brain. However, with advancing age the potential for regeneration in the brain dramatically declines. Scientists from the University of Zurich now identified a novel mechanism of how neural stem cells stay relatively free of aging-induced damage.

A diffusion barrier regulates the sorting of damaged proteins during cell division.

“If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.” Hsin Hsin Ming

Almost every person who walks through my practice doorway is anxious in some way. And so they should be. While their anxiety might be blasting messages at an overly high volume, the messages themselves are worth paying attention to: abusive relationships, significant losses and workplaces that have squeezed their personal, physical and spiritual lives into a corner too small for a hamster to burrow in.

New research shows that current and former users of marijuana are more likely to have the poorly-named prediabetes, poor blood sugar that might progress to type 2 diabetes, thanpeople who have never used marijuana.

Researchers are saying a new analysis of data on the genetics of autism spectrum disorder disputes a commonly held belief that autism results from the chance combinations of commonly occurring gene mutations, which are otherwise harmless. 

They find, instead, further evidence to suggest that devastating "ultra-rare" mutations of genes that they classify as "vulnerable" play a causal role in roughly half of all autism spectrum disorder cases. The vulnerable genes to which they refer harbor what they call an LGD, or likely gene-disruption. These LGD mutations can occur "spontaneously" between generations, and when that happens they are found in the affected child but not found in either parent. 

Portia De Rossi became famous playing Nelle on Ally McBeal in the 1990s and more recently as Lindsey Bluth on Arrested Development. She's a talented, funny actress, but more importantly: Portia De Rossi can write!
Her 2010 anorexia memoir, Unbearable Lightness, is the best of the first-person examinations of how this disease plays upon the minds of its victims and the subtle nuances of its manifestations. What's refreshing about Ms. De Rossi's account is not its candor (it is candid, but several ANA books have been that), but the fact that it's written by someone who understands and pays attention to narrative.

Last week there was another very public case of a journal article being retracted as a result of academic misconduct. This time it was in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), with the lead author – Dr Anna Ahimastos, working at Melbourne’s Baker IDI – reportedly admitting she fabricated data.

Things have been a little intense lately and the little voice in my head keeps begging, "How did I get here?"  

Is anything going to happen on September 24th? Well, the astronomers say, no. It is an ordinary day in space, nothing remarkable of note at all on that day by way of asteroid flybys.

Yes, it's true, as some news stories say, there is a distant flyby by a rather unremarkable asteroid. It is one of dozens that pass by Earth every month. It's not especially large as asteroids go. Indeed there's one more than double its size, passing closer, at a faster speed, on October 4th that nobody is interested in except perhaps a few astronomers.

With an aging baby-boomer population and an estimated 10 million Americans predicted to develop some form of brain disease, supplements claiming to help brain function are flooding the market. Wisconsin-based Quincy Bioscience, the self-proclaimed industry leader, has sold more than two million bottles of its jellyfish-based supplement Prevagen since its launch in 2007 on the premise that it is clinically proven to improve memory. But an investigation by ad watchdogTINA.org has found that the company does not have reliable scientific evidence to back up its claim and the organization has filed a deceptive advertising complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.