Category Archives: Mind Building

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Molecular ‘switch’ reverses chronic inflammation and aging

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Chronic inflammation, which results when old age, stress or environmental toxins keep the body’s immune system in overdrive, can contribute to a variety of devastating diseases, from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to diabetes and cancer.

Now, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have identified a molecular “switch” that controls the immune machinery responsible for chronic inflammation in the body. The finding, which appears online Feb. 6 in the journal Cell Metabolism, could lead to new ways to halt or even reverse many of these age-related conditions.

“My lab is very interested in understanding the reversibility of aging,” said senior author Danica Chen, associate professor of metabolic biology, nutritional sciences and toxicology at UC Berkeley. “In the past, we showed that aged stem cells can be rejuvenated. Now, we are asking: to what extent can aging be reversed? And we are doing that by looking at physiological conditions, like inflammation and insulin resistance, that have been associated with aging-related degeneration and diseases.”

In the study, Chen and her team show that a bulky collection of immune proteins called the NLRP3 inflammasome — responsible for sensing potential threats to the body and launching an inflammation response — can be essentially switched off by removing a small bit of molecular matter in a process called deacetylation.

Overactivation of the NLRP3 inflammasome has been linked to a variety of chronic conditions, including multiple sclerosis, cancer, diabetes and dementia. Chen’s results suggest that drugs targeted toward deacetylating, or switching off, this NLRP3 inflammasome might help prevent or treat these conditions and possibly age-related degeneration in general.

“This acetylation can serve as a switch,” Chen said. “So, when it is acetylated, this inflammasome is on. When it is deacetylated, the inflammasome is off.”

By studying mice and immune cells called macrophages, the team found that a protein called SIRT2 is responsible for deacetylating the NLRP3 inflammasome. Mice that were bred with a genetic mutation that prevented them from producing SIRT2 showed more signs of inflammation at the ripe old age of two than their normal counterparts. These mice also exhibited higher insulin resistance, a condition associated with type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

The team also studied older mice whose immune systems had been destroyed with radiation and then reconstituted with blood stem cells that produced either the deacetylated or the acetylated version of the NLRP3 inflammasome. Those who were given the deacetylated, or “off,” version of the inflammasome had improved insulin resistance after six weeks, indicating that switching off this immune machinery might actually reverse the course of metabolic disease.

“I think this finding has very important implications in treating major human chronic diseases,” Chen said. “It’s also a timely question to ask, because in the past year, many promising Alzheimer’s disease trials ended in failure. One possible explanation is that treatment starts too late, and it has gone to the point of no return. So, I think it’s more urgent than ever to understand the reversibility of aging-related conditions and use that knowledge to aid a drug development for aging-related diseases.”

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Materials provided by University of California – Berkeley. Original written by Kara Manke. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Health24.com | Woman grows hair out of her gums in rare medical case

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We all tend to be a bit squeamish at the idea of finding a stray hair in a plate of food – or even worse, finding it in your mouth.

But in a rare medical case, published in the journal Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, a 19-year old woman from Italy sprouted eyelash-like hairs from the soft gum tissue directly behind her upper front teeth.

A potential clue

When the stunned doctors dug deeper into medical literature, only five other cases were found – all men.

With so little pre-existing knowledge of this condition, determining the origin would cause a bit of a gnashing of teeth.

But in this case, according to further reports on Science Alert, pathologists found a potential clue. The young woman had her hormone levels tested and had an ultrasound done and this revealed that she had polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a condition where cysts on the ovaries can cause hormonal imbalances, which can often cause excessive hair growth (hirsutism).

The difference, however, is, that the hair growth is restricted to areas that already sprout follicles, such as the face, limbs and torso.

These hairs were already out of place. Doctors reckon that PCOS might not be the direct cause, but could certainly worsen this strange condition, dubbed as gingival hirsutism.

Treatment

The doctors treated the woman’s condition by surgically removing the hairs and prescribing an oral contraceptive to help rectify hormonal imbalances.

But six years later, the woman returned to the doctors after stopping her hormonal therapy – hairs having sprouted from her gums again. The medical team decided not only to remove the hairs, but to dissect a small piece of tissue. They were astounded to see that hair shafts were pushing through an extremely thickened gum tissue.

A year later the condition had flared up in other sites inside her mouth.

No clear explanation

Researchers have since suggested that the mucosal tissues inside the human mouth are very similar to our skin tissues while we are still embryos – and since hair cells are already starting to develop in that tissue, it might explain why it can be activated in strange places such as the mouth.

And in a condition known as Fordyce granules, oil glands found on outer skin can also grow inside the mouth. But as for hair growth? No clear explanation as of yet.

The doctors are at this stage uncertain whether the patient has resumed hormone therapy and whether she is still dealing with this phenomenon.

Image credit: iStock

Compiled by Marelize Wilke

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Health24.com | Pollen allergies: These are the common trees, grasses and plants to avoid in SA

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Pollen, a fine powder that is produced by trees, grasses, weeds and flowers to fertilise other plants of the same species, is one of the most common triggers of hay fever (also known as allergic rhinitis).

Just a pinch of pollen contains thousands of pollen grains, and these small and light pollen grains travel through the air, propelled by wind. For this reason, they are known as airborne pollens.

Some people have an adverse immune response when they breathe in pollen – which is essentially harmless. This is because some people’s immune systems mistake pollen as a threat. When this happens, the immune system produces chemicals (histamines) to fight the perceived threat, the release of which brings about an allergic reaction. This reaction may cause several irritating symptoms, such as a runny nose, itchy eyes, nasal congestion, tightness of the chest, and sneezing.

Pollen allergy can leave you with allergic rhinitis, conjunctivitis or asthma. In somebody with asthma, when pollen is inhaled, it can trigger an asthma flare. Similarly, if someone is highly allergic to grass pollen and rolls around in grass, they can develop hives on their skin. 

Not all plant pollens are allergenic

While pollen is considered as the main component of aeroallergens that lead to rhinitis and asthma, not all pollen is allergenic, notes The Real Pollen Count. In fact, it is mainly windborne pollens – as opposed to insect pollinated plants – that are allergenic, and they usually stem from small plants like grasses that release millions of windborne pollen grains during spring.

Fynbos plants, for example, are pollinated by insects, birds, mice and bats, and their seeds are not windborne, which means that it cannot easily be inhaled.

According to the Real Pollen Count, the common culprits that produce highly allergenic pollen in South Africa are:

Trees

  • Cypress trees: release their allergenic pollen from June onwards.
  • Oak trees: allergenic pollen is released in spring.
  • Plane trees: flower from the end of August, and have a short pollen-release season of six weeks in spring.
  • Olive trees: common in public spaces in South Africa, and release allergenic pollen from October to March.
  • Elm trees: flower from October to March, releasing allergenic pollen during that time.
  • Rhus tree: a widely planted in South Africa that is mostly pollinated by insects, but pollen has been detected in air samples. It releases allergenic pollen from October to March.

Grasses

  • Ryegrass: flowers from late September.
  • Winter grass: produces tiny grass flowers in June in winter rainfall areas.
  • Wild oat grass: appears in midwinter in some areas, but takes a few weeks to grow to its maximum height of 0.3–1.2cm before it releases pollen.
  • Bunny tail grass: appears in September–October.
  • Thatching grass: this grass is very tall and is mostly found in the grassland areas of Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. It releases pollen from September to June.
  • Bermuda grass: releases most of its pollen in late summer, but it may be found throughout the year.
  • Buffalo grass: a coastal grass that may be seen in the Cape, especially along the east coast and on the Otter Trail between Knysna and Nature’s Valley. Up to 80% of South Africans react to Buffalo grass pollens.
  • Kikuyu: is favoured as a lawn grass, and you should take care that the nursery is selling the female grass seedlings that do not produce pollen, suggests The Real Pollen Count. 

Weeds

  • English plantain: widespread throughout South Africa and is seen during most months of the year, although its peak flowering season is in December.
  • Dandelion: its peak flowering time is late summer-autumn.
  • Reeds: different species flower at different times of the year, and their pollen is therefore present in the air all year long.
  • Daisies/Cosmos: November and March are the peak months for these weeds.
  • Heath: these are fynbos plants, and although fynbos is mostly insect-pollinated, pollen from species of this genus is constantly found in air samples from July until March.

Grasses and trees are the most common causes of pollen allergies. In the US, ragweed is a main cause of weed allergies, but it has only recently been spotted in South Africa.

“I don’t think there’s an area [in South Africa] that is totally low allergy,” Professor Jonny Peter, head of the UCT Lung Institute’s Allergy and Immunology Unit told Business Insider. “It is more of a case of what your particular allergens are.”

Managing symptoms

Although a pollen allergy is unlikely to go away once it has developed, symptoms can be treated with medications and allergy shots. However, certain lifestyle choices can also help to relieve symptoms. On high pollen count days, you should therefore:

  • Stay indoors when it’s windy.
  • Don’t leave washing on the line for too long.
  • Keep windows closed on high pollen count days.
  • Take a shower and change your clothing when you’ve been outdoors.

You can check the weekly pollen counts here.

Before you stock up on antihistamines, it is best to consult your doctor about specific treatment options. An allergy specialist can also perform skin prick or blood tests and confirm if you have any particular allergy triggers.

As the pollen problem worsens, precise and expanded monitoring becomes even more essential. And here’s how you can help.

Amid the highest recorded pollen counts in history, Health24 will be bringing you exclusive weekly pollen count updates courtesy of the UCT Lung Institute’s Allergy and Immunology Unit.

Image: iStock

Zakiyah Ebrahim

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Health24.com | Coronavirus doesn’t have to scare you or your kids, psychologists say

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Coronavirus is all over the news, and people are talking about the latest outbreak that started in China and appears to be rapidly spreading to other countries.

It’s happened before: Ebola, MERS, SARS. All are dangerous diseases that took lives, but the widespread panic about these illnesses affected millions more. So, how can you stay calm when these threats arise, and how can you keep kids from worrying too much about these outbreaks?

Current risk low

“It’s natural to overreact to a stressor we can’t control,” said E. Scott Geller, an alumni distinguished professor of psychology at Virginia Tech. “And this is front and centre right now, so we have to make an evaluation as to whether we can control this stressor. If we don’t think we’re in control, there’s distress.”

But the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the current risk to Americans is low. So far, just five people have been confirmed to have the new coronavirus in the United States (currently in Washington State, California, Arizona and Illinois). Another 165 are being tested, according to the CDC. To put that in perspective, the current US population is 327 million people.

In China, there are more than 1.3 billion people. There have been 7 700 confirmed cases of the disease and 170 deaths so far, according to The New York Times. While the spread of the disease is concerning, people face far greater threats every day.

The difference, Geller said is that people feel like they have control over other threats. On a day-to-day basis, risky driving poses a much greater threat than coronavirus to the average American. Yet, people don’t often talk about or pay attention to that risk. “We feel in control. We think, ‘It’s not going to happen to me,'” Geller said.

Flu is another significant threat to Americans. There were more than 34 000 deaths caused by flu during the 2018–2019 season, according to the CDC. The year before, 61 000 people died from flu.

Robin Gurwitch, a psychologist with Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, said, “This virus seems different than the flu. While we know flu threatens young children and the elderly, we can get flu shots. There’s no shot for this virus.

Children are always listening

“What’s giving us pause is this idea that it’s out there and I don’t have any way to prevent it or fix it if I get it,” she explained.

Gurwitch said if you have children who seem concerned about what they’ve been hearing about this virus, find out what they know and what’s really worrying them. “Ask, ‘What have you heard about this?'” she suggested.

“Be honest with kids. Explain that it started in China and people are working very hard to make sure that this virus doesn’t spread here. Let them know it’s like a really bad cold. Tell them what precautions they can take to stay healthy. And then ask them what they think about what you’ve just told them, so you can correct any misperceptions,” Gurwitch said.

If you’re watching the news, keep in mind that children are always listening, she said.

Because this is a virus similar to a cold virus, Gurwitch recommended educating your kids about good infection control procedures.

“Let your kids know what they can do to protect themselves. Wash your hands a lot or use an alcohol-based sanitizer. Cover your mouth when you sneeze by sneezing into the crook of your elbow. Don’t put your hands near your eyes, mouth or nose,” she advised.

Image credit: unsplash.com

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Complete vaginal-mesh removals ‘leaving material behind’

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Dozens of women who thought they were having a “complete mesh removal” are said to be affected.

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Creating Harmonious Flow

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It’s only February 5, and due to my daily blogging challenge this year, I’ve already published more blog posts in 2020 than I did in all of 2019.

I realized fairly early in this challenge that it could feel very burdensome if I don’t frame it the right way. I think the wrong way to frame it would be as a self-discipline challenge. That makes it feel stressful to me. It makes the daily behaviors feel like demanding “have tos.” I wouldn’t want the next 11 months to feel like a forced march.

This morning while doing some journaling, I noted that writing is an activity that I often regard as restorative and rejuvenating. Writing can be cathartic. It helps me connect with people. It helps me process and understand ideas better. When I set my intentions properly before I start, the words flow naturally and sometimes even playfully. Writing doesn’t feel so much like thinking. It feels more like not thinking. Sometimes it feels like listening. Sometimes it feels like channeling. Sometimes it feels like dancing.

Writing is a part of my life that I feel that I’ve solved very well. While it still provides plenty of richness and depth, and I still appreciate its role in my life, this isn’t due to the experience of challenge or conflict. Writing feels like a channel that’s wide open for me to continue exploring, like a river I’ve traveled so many times that I know where all the rapids are, yet I still enjoy traversing it again and again.

Writing as a medium fits squarely within my comfort zone, yet it still has many branches that I can follow beyond my comfort zone. Oddly it has become a comfortable way to explore many discomforts.

I tend to think of many parts of life in terms of relationships. For me this way of thinking has been very transformational. What I especially love about writing is how I’ve developed a close, trusting relationship with it. It’s not just the act of writing that’s a source of positivity in my life. It’s my relationship with writing that’s grown so healthy and positive, and I can benefit from that relationship even when I’m not actively writing.

My initial intention for the daily blogging challenge was to more deeply explore my relationship with creative self-expression. This was more of an intuitive decision than a logical one, similar to how you might have an intuitive feeling about connecting with someone.

What is your relationship with money? What’s your relationship with your work? What’s your relationship with social media? What’s your relationship with sexuality? What’s your relationship with your partner (if you have one)? What’s your relationship with your character? What’s your relationship with reality?

I’ve been asking myself these questions for many years. I’ve answered some of them in the form of significant courses. And I continue to reflect upon all of these relationships and more.

Conscious Quality Control

Thinking of different aspects of life in terms of the quality of the relationships is empowering because I know that those relationships exist in my mind. That’s where I experience all of them. While I can say that there are external aspects to many of these relationships, I still process all of the details within my mind. I model each relationship mentally. I feel each relationship emotionally. Some relationships have physical aspects that I experience with my body and my senses, and those signals also get processed through my mind.

I don’t control the externals per se, but I can wield some conscious control over how I do the internal processing. If I notice that the way I represent a relationship is becoming problematic, I can delve into how I’m modeling it. This is tricky work since the initial modeling happens subconsciously. I don’t really control how my mind frames these relationships from the start, but I can consciously discover the details of those models, such as by asking questions and journaling about it. Having conscious conversations with others helps too. As I gain more clarity about how my mind is modeling a relationship, I can look for modeling problems that could introduce bugs in my thinking or give rise to paralyzing emotions, and I can challenge my mind to devise more intelligent and accurate models.

I often think of the architecture of my mind in very physical terms – a collection of neural clusters in my brain. Since the brain exists in 3D space, it has physical limitations that give rise to various artifacts. Some regions of the brain don’t share data very well with other regions. You’ve probably heard the term cognitive dissonance, when we seem to believe something even when we have plenty of evidence to the contrary. My religious upbringing was rife with that. I see this as being linked to the physical structure of the brain. The architecture of the brain doesn’t force congruent thinking. We can have one region of the brain modeling reality one way and another region modeling reality a different way (or simply storing memories that conflict with the first region’s model), and they don’t necessarily talk to each other to resolve these conflicts.

Hence I don’t really take it personally when my mind holds models that lead to problematic relationships. I tend to regard such problems as engineering or algorithmic problems. These problems don’t usually disturb my sense of self-esteem. I recognize that the architecture of my brain is giving rise to these problems, but I also have well-developed tools that I can use to resolve such problems. These tools are my collection of personal growth insights, many of which I’ve been blogging about over many years.

I notice that when many people have mental modeling problems, they tend to take it personally, as if they’re somehow defective, unworthy, or broken. I encourage you not to think like that.

My mental processing occurs within my mind, but that mental processing isn’t me per se. It’s just the software running within me. So if the software is buggy or defective, I like to interpret this as an invitation to explore and experience those bugs, to diagnose them, and to attempt to fix them if I’m so inclined. I try not to take it personally, just as I wouldn’t take it personally if one of my devices behaves in a buggy manner.

This mental model was one that I learned from programming computers and from studying some neuroscience. But I don’t have to root it to the physical to make it work. Quite often I prefer using the subjective reality perspective, and in that context I still regard thought as software, except that it’s running in some kind of simulation instead of within my physical brain. The simulation doesn’t need to have a physical aspect. It could be some kind of dream world, in which case I just consider the dream constructs to be a different type of software.

If I think of thought as software, then thoughts can sometimes be buggy. Multiple thoughts don’t have to agree with each other. Congruence is not a requirement for thought to exist.

Harmony

I also sometimes think of thought as music. Some music sounds harmonious and pleasant, and some doesn’t. Just as we can listen to unpleasant music and consider what’s wrong with it and what needs to be changed to make it sound better, we can do the same with thought.

I often feel this drive within me to make my thinking more harmonious. Sometimes this feels like the drive of life itself. How can life organize itself into increasingly complex yet stable structures? This requires bringing harmony to competing priorities, so the competition doesn’t tear apart the overall structure.

We see this on a social level too. Individuals have different priorities, and this bubbles up to competition among families, tribes, communities, political groups, and countries. Socially and politically we have a lot of disagreements. Our collection social software can be pretty buggy and disharmonious sometimes. But we could say that this bubbles up from our individual software. If we’re internally disharmonious, how can society be otherwise?

I recognize that when I’m working on my own personal problems, trying to bring harmony to my inner relationships, I’m also working on an internal version of our larger social problems. Perhaps the reason I notice certain problems in the world is that they resonate with internal patterns, so I can look at my issues with the world as indicators of what might be issues in need of resolution within myself.

How would we recognize harmony when it’s present?

Imagine a world where politicians greeted each other with hugs and smiles instead of withholding handshakes. Imagine a world where politicians praised each other and expressed gratitude openly. Imagine politicians agreeing on purpose and priorities together. Imagine politicians sharing honestly what they intend to do and what they can’t realistically do. It’s not that difficult to imagine what a more harmonious situation would look like, although it may be difficult to imagine it becoming real.

Can we do this internally as well? What would a more harmonious you look like?

With more inner harmony, you might find yourself doing a wonderful job of balancing priorities, as if you’ve somehow resolved the inner competition by recognizing common ground and getting each part of you to align with that common ground. You wouldn’t experience the problem of feeling like you should work and distracting yourself online instead.

Purpose

One way to achieve this sense of inner harmony is with clarity of purpose. If you can clarify and commit to a strong purpose for yourself, it’s easier to get otherwise disagreeable neural regions to align. A strong purpose can serve as an alignment beacon, but only if you’re really committed.

Thinking of different parts of life in terms of relationships also connects with the purpose idea. Then you can consider how each relationship in your life is serving your greater purpose. How is your relationship with money serving your purpose? How is your relationship with work serving your purpose? How is your relationship with your body serving your purpose? Asking such questions will expose further misalignments in these relationships since some aspects won’t serve your purpose very well. Then you can delve into the misaligned models and see if you can upgrade them to better align with your purpose.

It can be easier to write a harmonious song if you get clear about the purpose. If you compose one track with one purpose in mind, and you write another track with a different purpose in mind, you may inject disharmony into the song. But if all tracks are created with the intention of collectively serving a singular purpose, that can help you to create a more aligned and harmonious song.

I’m noticing the usefulness of this purpose alignment with my daily blogging challenge as well. Each day I seek to fit this into my schedule, there’s the possibility (and sometimes the reality) of running into resistance. Competing priorities can push against this commitment, sometimes delaying it till late in the day. I may not always feel motivated to create. I may be extra busy some days. Sometimes surprises will happen, and I’ll have to deal with those too. With a full year of daily blogging, it’s unavoidable that I’ll experience numerous episodes of resistance from various other regions of my brain.

Trying to push through such resistance day after day can be draining, and if I do that too much, it leads to feeling burnt out and not wanting to continue. Then I have little choice but to lean on self-discipline and force compliance with the commitment. But of course that option isn’t ideal.

There are many options for this purpose, and really it’s just a matter of reminding myself of why this challenge is a good idea. I can focus on the daily connection with the flow of creative energy. I can think about helping people grow and how many people are served by this challenge. I can think about the character growth this challenge is creating.

By connecting with a strong enough purpose for this challenge, I notice that the resistance starts shifting towards a feeling of greater harmony. What’s really interesting is that just having a decent purpose for the daily blogging is also helping other parts of my life to harmonize, not just with this challenge but with each other. It’s like the purpose serves as a core musical track, providing the rhythm that all of the other tracks sync to. And when those other tracks sync to the rhythm track, they also sync well with each other.

For example, I’ve noticed that I’m doing a better job of self-care lately than when I first started this challenge. I’m feeling more relaxed and peaceful while I work, even when I have a lot to do. I’m working with better flow and less stress. January was an extra busy month due to the Stature course launch, and I also had a Panama trip that month, so it was an unbalancing time that took me off my normal routine. February is still plenty busy, but it feels more relaxed and flowing. I think this has a lot to do with finding greater clarity among otherwise competing priorities. Instead of feeling pulled in different directions, I’m doing a better job of getting my activities and projects aligned in service to an overall purpose.

When I get extra busy, my sense of purpose can feel a bit scrambled. I get lost among the trees and have a hard time remembering which forest I’m in. And when that happens, I often find it hard to justify keeping up those vital self-care activities, and of course that just makes things worse. But when I get back in tune with a clear purpose, it’s easier to slow down, and slowing down helps me speed up. Instead of burning the candle at both ends, I do a better job of creating harmonious days and weeks that feel sustainably pleasant. My personal song begins to sound increasingly harmonious.

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Ban term ‘painkiller’ to end obsession with drugs

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Government adviser calls for change in culture on painkillers with greater focus on social issues.

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Coronavirus: NHS orders ‘assessment pods’ in England hospitals

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The move is meant to protect other patients from infection if people ignore advice to self-isolate.

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Scientists solve structure enabling cyanobacteria to thrive in low light

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Scientists have determined the structure of the protein complex that gives cyanobacteria their unique ability to convert weak, filtered sunlight into useable energy. Their findings could one day be used to engineer crops that thrive under low-light conditions.

Tiny photosynthetic organisms that live virtually everywhere on earth, cyanobacteria helped to create an oxygen-rich atmosphere on earth and continue to provide us with much of the oxygen that we need to survive.

“When cyanobacteria live in low-light conditions, such as beneath a pond surface or under the leaf litter on a forest floor, some are able to switch from using the visible light that is most conducive to their growth and photosynthetic activities to harvesting the weaker, far-red sunlight that filters down to them,” said Donald Bryant, Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology, Penn State. “This novel ability gives cyanobacteria an adaptive advantage over other organisms and is part of why they are responsible for 50 percent of all photosynthetic activity on the planet.”

In its study, the team, which included researchers at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery, investigated Fischerella thermalis, a terrestrial cyanobacterium previously used as a model organism for the study of photosynthesis. Like all species of cyanobacteria, F. thermalis is rich in chlorophyll, the pigment that is responsible for absorbing light. According to Bryant, recent research has suggested that F. thermalis‘s usual complement of chlorophyll, called chlorophyll a, is partially replaced under far-red light conditions with a closely related, yet chemically distinct, form of the molecule, known as chlorophyll f.

“So far we have only been able to speculate about how cyanobacteria make the switch to using chlorophyll f because no structural information about the photosynthetic machinery involved has been available for us to see what is going on,” he said.

To understand the phenomenon, Bryant and his colleagues used cryogenic electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) to solve the structure of F. thermalis‘s photosystem I, one of the two protein complexes responsible for photosynthesis that occur in all photosynthetic organisms. Cryo-EM can determine biomolecular structures with near-atomic scale resolution. Using the method, the researchers were able to observe the locations of chlorophyll f molecules present in F. thermalis. Specifically, the team identified four sites where these chlorophyll f molecules can bind and become functional.

“By synthesizing and incorporating around 8% chlorophyll f into their photosystem I complexes, F. thermalis is able to carry out photosynthesis using far-red light of up to nearly 800 nanometers,” said Chris Gisriel, a postdoctoral associate at Yale University who participated in this research while he was a researcher at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery.

The team’s findings appear today (Feb. 5) in the journal Science Advances.

Bryant said that in previous research, he and his colleagues discovered that another protein in the cyanobacterial cells senses the wavelength of incoming light and activates the production of the modified photosynthetic apparatus when far-red light is predominant over visible light.

Gisriel added, “Research suggests that perhaps 25 percent of all cyanobacteria, including common soil organisms, have this capability. This would imply that a significant portion — about one-eighth — of the oxygen on earth comes from organisms with this adaptation.”

The team’s findings suggest exciting possibilities for future applications. For example, crops could potentially be tweaked to control their light absorption properties depending on ambient light conditions. In addition, two crops could potentially be grown together, with shorter crops like alfalfa, extracting far-red light from their shaded locations beneath taller crops, like corn. Such a strategy could produce twice the crop yield per unit area.

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Materials provided by Penn State. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Direct touch of food makes eating experience more enjoyable

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Strawberry-flavored mousse tastes 10% sweeter when served from a white container rather than a black one. Coffee tastes nearly twice as intense when it is drunk from a white mug rather than a clear glass one. Adding two-and-a-half ounces to the weight of a plastic yogurt container makes the yogurt seem about 25% more filling.

Now, Adriana Madzharov, a sensory marketing researcher and assistant professor at Stevens Institute of Technology, shows that when high self-control individuals touch food directly with their hands (vs. indirectly with a utensil), they not only experience it as tastier and more satisfying, but they eat more of it. The work, published in the Dec. 19 issue of the Journal of Retailing, may not only offer a way to increase the appeal of food but also offers retailers a simple way to make the eating experience more enjoyable for consumers sampling food.

“It’s an interesting effect,” said Madzharov. “It’s such a small tweak but it can change how people evaluate your product. “

In her first experiment, Madzharov had 45 undergraduate students visually inspect and evaluate a cube of Muenster cheese, hold it before eating it and then asked them to answer questions about their eating behavior. Half of the participants sampled a cheese cube with an appetizer pick on it and the other half sampled a cheese cube without a pick. Initially, the two groups — direct touch and indirect touch — did not indicate any difference between the cheese with and without the pick before eating it.

Madzharov found that participants who reported a high degree of self-control when consuming food — individuals who report that they can resist tasty foods and are conscious about what and how much they eat — perceived the cheese as tastier and more appetizing after they ate it. However, that finding did not hold true for individuals who report a low degree of self-control when consuming food.

“These two groups do not appear to process sensory information in the same way,” said Madzharov. “Our results suggest that for people who regularly control their food consumption, direct touch triggers an enhanced sensory response, making food more desirable and appealing.”

Even when Madzharov manipulated participants’ thinking on self-control, goals and food consumption, these findings persisted, suggesting that a high degree of self-control influences how people experience food when they touch it directly with their hands — whether self-control is real or primed.

In this second experiment, Madzharov separated a new set of 145 undergraduate students into two groups. The first group was told to imagine that they had decided to be more careful with their diet and cut back on excessive eating in order to achieve their long-term objective of being fit and healthy. The second, that they had decided to worry less about their weight all the time and allow themselves to indulge in tasty foods more often in order to enjoy life and experience its pleasures.

All participants were given a plastic cup with four mini donuts inside it — half with appetizer picks and half without picks. As in the first experiment, the participants were then asked to visually inspect and evaluate the mini donuts on hedonistic qualities such as texture, freshness, quality and nutrition. She also instructed them to report their level of focus and attention when eating the mini donuts to get a measure of mindfulness and sensory experience.

Madzharov found that when participants were primed with self-control (vs. indulgent) thinking, they evaluated the sampled food more positively when they touched it directly with their hands. It also suggests that the mechanism driving this effect was the enhanced sensory experience that participants reported in the direct touch/self-control condition.

Past research has explored, for example, how the weight and texture of containers and cups influence how people evaluate food of beverage, and has confirmed that tactile input from cues external to the food is important. However, this is the first time that direct touch of food has been evaluated as a way to influence how people experience food, and possibly drive consumer behavior.

Two years ago, Madzharov also found that just the scent of coffee, which has no caffeine in it, appears to boost performance in math.

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