There are apparently breakthroughs on the way for those with sleep disorders – which sent me down a rabbit hole of research...
I met a guy in pharmaceuticals who told me about a bunch of cool breakthroughs in sleep meds: mainly, we may be on the brink of a new Wegovy, but in this case it’s a drug to cure narcolepsy. I suggested the two things are not quite the same, given that obesity is a global epidemic and narcolepsy is fairly rare. He countered that the way the drug works might also have applications for insomnia; similar to the Post-it note having been invented by someone trying to create the world’s strongest glue.
Anyway, in the course of this, I discovered the test for type 1 narcolepsy, which is that you’re put in a room with zero stimulation – nothing to read, no one to chat to, perfect silence, perfect temperature – and timed on how long it takes you to fall asleep. If it’s under eight minutes, you’re narcoleptic. But the average, for a person with no complaints in that area at all, is 22 minutes. I was completely incredulous. This is a grip on consciousness more or less the same as a house cat. Bored? Go to sleep. Even a dog will have a quick look for something to eat first.
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© Photograph: Posed by model; Westend61/Getty Images
© Photograph: Posed by model; Westend61/Getty Images
© Photograph: Posed by model; Westend61/Getty Images
Natural texture and flavour of protein produced by fungus closely resemble meat
© Xiao Liu
The work of surgeon and artist Joseph Maclise is the focus of a show at the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds
It is an image of an unnamed black man with his eyes closed and his innards exposed. Drawn with care and precision, the image may be the only anatomical drawing of a black body made during the Victorian age.
Now it is part of a new exhibition that focuses on the work of Joseph Maclise, a surgeon and artist whose work – including his 1851 atlas Surgical Anatomy – made the human anatomy accessible to the general public, and who was the brother of the celebrated artist Daniel Maclise.
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© Illustration: Mark Newton Photography
© Illustration: Mark Newton Photography
© Illustration: Mark Newton Photography
The Senate Commerce Committee advanced the nomination of Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator to the full Senate in a Dec. 8 vote.
The post Senate committee advances Isaacman nomination a second time appeared first on SpaceNews.
Previous research linked disappearance of small-brained species to arrival of homo sapiens
© Katrina Kenny, SA Museum
Une découverte majeure pourrait bouleverser notre compréhension des maladies neurodégénératives. Des chercheurs canadiens viennent de démontrer chez la souris que certaines lésions cérébrales typiques des pathologies à prions se développent même en l’absence totale de prions infectieux. Les tissus cérébraux présentent alors des trous spongiformes, des cicatrices et des plaques amyloïdes caractéristiques, normalement attribués exclusivement ... Lire plus
L'article Les dommages cérébraux de type prion peuvent survenir sans contamination infectieuse est apparu en premier sur Fredzone.Les chercheurs progressent dans la compréhension des mécanismes biologiques liés à l’obésité. Une équipe scientifique chinoise vient de démontrer qu’un régime de restriction énergétique intermittente provoque des modifications substantielles à la fois dans le cerveau et la flore intestinale des personnes obèses. Cette découverte pourrait révolutionner les approches thérapeutiques destinées à maintenir un poids corporel ... Lire plus
L'article La restriction calorique intermittente transforme simultanément le cerveau et le microbiome intestinal est apparu en premier sur Fredzone.Une découverte majeure pourrait bouleverser notre compréhension des maladies neurodégénératives. Des chercheurs canadiens viennent de démontrer chez la souris que certaines lésions cérébrales typiques des pathologies à prions se développent même en l’absence totale de prions infectieux. Les tissus cérébraux présentent alors des trous spongiformes, des cicatrices et des plaques amyloïdes caractéristiques, normalement attribués exclusivement ... Lire plus
L'article Les dommages cérébraux de type prion peuvent survenir sans contamination infectieuse est apparu en premier sur Fredzone.Les chercheurs progressent dans la compréhension des mécanismes biologiques liés à l’obésité. Une équipe scientifique chinoise vient de démontrer qu’un régime de restriction énergétique intermittente provoque des modifications substantielles à la fois dans le cerveau et la flore intestinale des personnes obèses. Cette découverte pourrait révolutionner les approches thérapeutiques destinées à maintenir un poids corporel ... Lire plus
L'article La restriction calorique intermittente transforme simultanément le cerveau et le microbiome intestinal est apparu en premier sur Fredzone.The answer to today’s engineering challenge
Earlier today I asked you to reinvent a component of the sixteenth century Dutch sawmill, which – according to a new book – was the world’s first industrial machine. You can read that post here, along with some great BTL discussion about the world’s greatest inventions. (Spoon or spear? Plough or spectacles? Transistor or trousers?)
Round and up
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© Photograph: JacobH/Getty Images/iStockphoto
© Photograph: JacobH/Getty Images/iStockphoto
© Photograph: JacobH/Getty Images/iStockphoto
As a physicist in industry, I spend my days developing new types of photovoltaic (PV) panels. But I’m also keen to do something for the transition to green energy outside work, which is why I recently installed two PV panels on the balcony of my flat in Munich. Fitting them was great fun – and I can now enjoy sunny days even more knowing that each panel is generating electricity.
However, the panels, which each have a peak power of 440 W, don’t cover all my electricity needs, which prompted me to take an interest in a plan to build six wind turbines in a forest near me on the outskirts of Munich. Curious about the project, I particularly wanted to find out when the turbines will start generating electricity for the grid. So when I heard that a weekend cycle tour of the site was being organized to showcase it to local residents, I grabbed my bike and joined in.
As we cycle, I discover that the project – located in Forstenrieder Park – is the joint effort of four local councils and two “citizen-energy” groups, who’ve worked together for the last five years to plan and start building the six turbines. Each tower will be 166 m high and the rotor blades will be 80 m long, with the plan being for them to start operating in 2027.
I’ve never thought of Munich as a particularly windy city, but at the height at which the blades operate, there’s always a steady, reliable flow of wind
I’ve never thought of Munich as a particularly windy city. But tour leader Dieter Maier, who’s a climate adviser to Neuried council, explains that at the height at which the blades operate, there’s always a steady, reliable flow of wind. In fact, each turbine has a designed power output of 6.5 MW and will deliver a total of 10 GWh in energy over the course of a year.
Cycling around, I’m excited to think that a single turbine could end up providing the entire electricity demand for Neuried. But installing wind turbines involves much more than just the technicalities of generating electricity. How do you connect the turbines to the grid? How do you ensure planes don’t fly into the turbines? What about wildlife conservation and biodiversity?
At one point of our tour, we cycle round a 90-degree bend in the forest and I wonder how a huge, 80 m-long blade will be transported round that kind of tight angle? Trees will almost certainly have to be felled to get the blade in place, which sounds questionable for a supposedly green project. Fortunately, project leaders have been working with the local forest manager and conservationists, finding ways to help improve the local biodiversity despite the loss of trees.
As a representative of BUND (one of Germany’s biggest conservation charities) explains on the tour, a natural, or “unmanaged”, forest consists of a mix of areas with a higher or lower density of trees. But Forstenrieder Park has been a managed forest for well over a century and is mostly thick with trees. Clearing trees for the turbines will therefore allow conservationists to grow more of the bushes and plants that currently struggle to find space to flourish.
To avoid endangering birds and bats native to this forest, meanwhile, the turbines will be turned off when the animals are most active, which coincidentally corresponds to low wind periods in Munich. Insurance costs have to be factored in too. Thankfully, it’s quite unlikely that a turbine will burn down or get ice all over its blades, which means liability insurance costs are low. But vandalism is an ever-present worry.
In fact, at the end of our bike tour, we’re taken to a local wind turbine that is already up and running about 13 km further south of Forstenrieder Park. This turbine, I’m disappointed to discover, was vandalized back in 2024, which led to it being fenced off and video surveillance cameras being installed.
But for all the difficulties, I’m excited by the prospect of the wind turbines supporting the local energy needs. I can’t wait for the day when I’m on my balcony, solar panels at my side, sipping a cup of tea made with water boiled by electricity generated by the rotor blades I can see turning round and round on the horizon.
The post So you want to install a wind turbine? Here’s what you need to know appeared first on Physics World.
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