Gizmorama - March 9, 2015

Good Morning,

A new study suggests that salt may guard against infection. Well, bring on the popcorn, french fries, and potato chips! You know, for my health.

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Iron vapors help scientists understand formation of Earth, moon --*
DAVIS, Calif. (UPI) - Scientists at the University of California, Davis, are recreating the violent collisions of early Earth. In doing so, researchers have been able to study the behavior of vaporized iron -- gaining a better understanding of the formation of the Earth and the moon.

UC Davis scientists were assisted by researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory and Harvard University. To recreate the conditions of the early solar system, scientists used Sandia National Laboratory's Z-machine, largest X-ray generator in the world. More specifically, scientists slammed aluminum plates into iron samples at high speed, mimicking the condition of early Earth impacts and collisions.

The experiments proved that the pressures necessary for iron to vaporize aren't as intense as previously suspected. This mean more iron was likely spewed skyward than melted back into inner Earth.

"Rather than the iron in the colliding objects sinking down directly to the Earth's growing core, the iron is vaporized and spread over the surface within a vapor plume," lead study author Richard Kraus, research scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, explained in a press release. "This means that the iron can mix much more easily with Earth's mantle."

Scientists theorize the vaporized iron would have fallen back to Earth in the form of iron rain, mixing with Earth's still-molten mantle. The revelation also explains why the moon is mostly iron free, as its low gravity wouldn't have been able to pull back its vaporized iron -- the misty metal likely lost to larger planets like Earth.

The study was published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience.


* Scientists say salt may guard against infection *
NASHVILLE (UPI) - A new study suggests salt accumulates in the skin of mice and humans as a biological strategy for warding off infections.

The revelatory study, published this week in the journal Cell Metabolism, offers a new perspective on the mineral mostly fingered as an instigator of nutritional and health-related problems like hypertension.

The new research, conducted by scientists from Vanderbilt University and a number of universities in Germany, showed that salt may facilitate a natural barrier to microbial invasion.

Researchers came to their hypothesis after using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique to measure salt accumulation in and around skin infections in six patients. Physicians found high concentrations of salt in the skin of patients' infected legs. Healthy legs boasted no discernible concentrations of the mineral.

After treating the patients with antibiotics, the salt accumulation disappeared along with the infection.

To follow up their research, scientists tested a high-salt diet on mice battling infections on the bottoms of their feet (footpads). The diet enabled an increased concentration of salt at the source of infection and allowed the mice to rid themselves of the infection more quickly than those that did not receive a high-salt diet.

But researchers said their findings don't translate to a recommendation for increased salt intake.

"I think that the most important finding here is that tissues can accumulate massive amounts of sodium locally to boost immune responses where ever needed," lead author Jens Titze said. "This mostly happens totally independent of the diet."

The natural infection-fighting function of salt accumulation may be largely unnecessary, given the widespread use of antibiotics.

The results may also help explain why elderly patients show high concentrations of salt, as salt stores may grow as the aging body deals with more and more instances of inflammation, in response to the maladies of old age like heart disease and cancer.

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