GEN-ERIC News

Our body’s 24-hour internal clock, or circadian clock, regulates the time we go to sleep, wake up and become hungry as well as the daily rhythms of many metabolic functions. The clock – an ancient molecular machine found in organisms large and small, simple and complex – properly aligns one’s physiology with one’s environment. Now, for the first time, a Northwestern University and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare (ENH) study has shown that overeating alters the core mechanism of the body clock, throwing off the timing of internal signals, including appetite control, critical for good health. Animals on a high-fat diet gained weight and suddenly exhibited a disruption in their circadian clocks, eating extra calories during the time they should have been asleep or at rest. The study, which will be published in the Nov. 7 issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, also shows that changes in metabolic state associated with obesity and diabetes not only affects the circadian rhythms of behavior but also of physiology. Probing beyond the behavioral level, the researchers observed actual changes in genes that encode the clock in the brain and in peripheral tissues (such as fat), resulting in diminished expression of those genes.

Research has shown convincing evidence that dietary patterns practiced during adulthood are important contributors to age-related cognitive decline and dementia risk. An article published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences highlights information on the benefits of diets high in fruit, vegetables, cereals and fish and low in saturated fats in reducing dementia risk. Adults with diabetes are especially sensitive to the foods they eat with respect to cognitive function. Specifically, an adult with diabetes will experience a decline in memory function after a meal, especially if simple carbohydrate foods are consumed. While the precise physiological mechanisms underlying these dietary influences are not completely understood, the modulation of brain insulin levels likely contributes.

Catastrophic bridge collapses in Minnesota, China and elsewhere have killed at least 58 people this year, and concrete weakened by water is partly to blame. A new study points to a waterproofing solution that lies close at hand—or, er, mouth: sodium acetate, the ingredient that gives salt-and-vinegar chips their delicious zing. Water seeps through concrete’s pores, cracking its exterior and damaging the steel beams within. Sodium acetate seals these pores from the inside, says researcher Awni Al-Otoom of the Jordan University of Science and Technology in Irbid, Jordan. When brushed onto concrete as part of a watery solution, the salty substance sinks in and forms crystals, partially plugging the pores. The crystals create an even better barrier when wet, since moisture—a drop of rain, say—makes them swell to fill openings more snugly.

A Michigan couple celebrated their first wedding anniversary and, more importantly being alive, after the minivan they were in was struck by a falling object … a 600-pound cow. Charles and Linda Everson were driving back to their hotel in Manson, Wash., where they were visiting, when the year-old cow fell 200 feet off a cliff and onto the hood of their vehicle. They missed being killed by a matter of inches, authorities said.

A previously undiscovered type of aurora could be brightening the skies over the poles. That’s the conclusion from satellite images of the poles showing the new phenomenon above Antarctic in 2004. The conventional aurora borealis in the Arctic and aurora australis in the Antarctic are typically seen as curtains of brightly coloured light descending through the atmosphere near the poles. The light is generated when electrons from the solar wind become trapped and accelerated by the Earth’s magnetic field to energies in excess of 1 kiloelectronvolt.