Brain Cells from Tooth Stem Cells

A team of researchers at the University of Adelaide led by Affiliate Associate Professor Ellis discovered that stem cells from teeth can be grown into brain cells. The discovery shows potential for curing stroke with the patients’ own tooth stem cells. Treatment with current cell and drug therapies cause side effects because they conflict with the patient’s immune system. The newly discovered dental pulp stem cell therapy prevents such side effects. Although the stem cells did not yet fully develop into brain cells, Professor Ellis believes that tooth stem cells will grow into fully functional brain cells with the right environment. The research opens up the potential for curing other brain disorders in the future.  The research results were published in the journal Stem Cell Research and Therapy.

Copper Converts CO to Ethanol

A team of scientists from Stanford University has discovered the first metal catalyst that can effectively convert carbon monoxide to ethanol, which can be used as fuel. While ethanol is usually produced by crop fermentation, existing methods are vastly inefficient. Using the catalyst, however, made it possible for the team to produce adequate amounts of ethanol at room temperature in an eco-friendly fashion. Using oxide-derived copper as the cathode in the electrochemical cell, the team was able to produce ethanol at 57% current efficiency, a ten-fold increase compared to the ordinary copper cathode. Matthew Kanan, the assistant professor of chemistry at Stanford, conceptualized a closed-loop ethanol producing system, using carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to produce ethanol with the newly discovered catalyst. This study was published in the journal Nature.

Blood Test Diagnoses Depression

Research led by Christian Scharinger and Ulrich Rabl at the Medical University of Vienna recently discovered the possibility of detecting depression through blood tests. The research team revealed that serotonin transporters (SERT) in the blood acts in a similar way as it acts in the brain. SERT regulates the transport of serotonin, which monitors the neural depression networks in the brain. Many anti-depressant drugs aim to increase serotonin because lack of it causes depressive symptoms. The transporters make sure that the serotonin level is kept at the optimal level in the blood plasma. In the near future, scientists will be able to demonstrate if the patients are suffering from depression by measuring the SERT content in the blood, rather than using surveys for diagnosis.

Only Strong as Its Weakest Point

While graphene is recognized as being extremely strong inspite of its light weight, that characteristic might not stand for real-world applications. Led by Associate Professors Ting Zhu at Georgia Institute of Technology and Jun Lou at Rice University, the research team researched the strength of large-area graphene, the size needed for practical purposes. The team purposely made a pre-crack on the sheet of graphene to create the weakest spot. After measuring fracture toughness, the material’s resistance to crack growth, the team found out that there was a substantial decrease in its value when compared to that of small-area “perfect” (without any cracks) graphene. Professor Lou commented, “To use [graphene] in real applications, we have to understand the useful strength of large-area graphene.”

Understanding Antimatter

Korea University researchers have recently conducted a study colliding matter and antimatter particles, which could provide essential information on why antimatter is almost nonexistent.

Using a linear particle accelerator, researchers smashed an electron into a positron - the antimatter version of an electron. Done at a speed almost matching that of light, the reaction produced a type of subatomic particle called a charm quark meson, which exists for 10-trillionths of a second. It is made up of two smaller particles, a “charm” quark and an “up” antiquark. In order to understand how matter and antimatter came to existence, a similar environment - involving extremely high temperatures and amounts of energy - was created. The result was constant 99.9999 percent of the time. This experiment, proving that the quantum state can be induced in an electron-positron collision, is unprecedented, as past studies have only been able to prove its possibility in proton collision experiments.

Scientists have worked to find out why the universe today is almost entirely made of regular matter, in contrast to the beginning stages of the universe when matter and antimatter existed in equal amounts. This study provides a hint at present-day matter-antimatter asymmetry by demonstrating particle-antiparticle asymmetry induced by the mixing of quantum states. 

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