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Jekyll and Hyde cells: their role in brain injury and disease revealed
New research has shown how normally helpful brain cells can turn rogue and kill off other brain cells following injury or disease.Astrocytes have long been implicated in the pathology of a range of human neurodegenerative diseases or injuries including Alzheimer's, Huntington’s Parkinson’s disease, brain trauma and spinal cord injury.
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Antarctic sea ice may be a source of mercury in Southern Ocean fish and birds
New research has found methylmercury – a potent neurotoxin – in sea ice in the Southern Ocean.Published today in the journal Nature Microbiology, the results are the first to show that sea-ice bacteria can change mercury into methylmercury, a more toxic form that can contaminate the marine environment, including fish and birds.If ingested, methylmercury can travel to…
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The million year old monkey
An international team of scientists have dated a species of fossil monkey found across the Caribbean to just over 1 million years old.The discovery was made after the researchers recovered a fossil tibia (shin bone) belonging to the species of extinct monkey Antillothrix bernensis from an underwater cave in Altagracia Province, Dominican Republic. The fossil was embedded…