November 28, 2018

Good Morning,

It seems like there are gizmos and gadgets for everything these days. Recently, researchers have developed a device that has the ability to remove mercury from drinking water. I'll take a few of those things. They might come in handy.

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

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- New device removes mercury from drinking water --*

Researchers have developed a new method to remove mercury from drinking water, according to a new study.

Scientists from Swedish-based Chalmers University of Technology have created an electrochemical process that can "reduce the mercury content in a liquid by more than 99 percent," making the water safe for humans to drink.

"Today, cleaning away the low, yet harmful, levels of mercury from large amounts of water is a major challenge. Industries need better methods to reduce the risk of mercury being released in nature," Björn Wickman, a professor at Chalmers University and study co-author, said in a statement.

Their method uses a noble metal platinum electrode that pulls the mercury from the water, which then creates an alloy between the two. The researchers say this electrode has a high capacity that can grab four atoms, which a user can safely clean off to make the electrode reusable.

"Another great thing with our technique is that it is very selective. Even though there may be many different types of substance in the water, it just removes the mercury. Therefore, the electrode doesn't waste capacity by unnecessarily taking away other substances from the water," Wickman said.

Mercury can damage the human nervous system, brain development and other human functions, but it poses particular harm to children, according to the World Health Organization. Mercury transmission can occur during pregnancy from mother to child and also through different food sources. Swordfish, shark, king mackerel and tilefish all contain high levels of mercury.

Strict regulations surrounding the handling of toxic heavy metals have helped curb the spread of mercury in nature. However, the dangerous substance can still be spread through the air and in rain, allowing the dangerous substance to eventually enter waterways used for eating and drinking.

For now, the Chalmers University researchers are working on getting a patent to hopefully get the water cleaning method to market.

"We have already had positive interactions with a number of interested parties, who are keen to test the method. Right now, we are working on a prototype which can be tested outside the lab under real-world conditions," the statement read.

*-- The location of neurons within the cortex affects how they process information --*

How neurons process information is dependent on their positioning within the cortex, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Queensland.

Until now, neuroscientists agreed the microcircuits of neurons found in the brain's outermost layer, the cortex, functioned and interacted in a standardized way. Scientists thought the miniature circuits were more or less all the same.

But some researchers were skeptical. To find out if the same types of neurons performed the same functions, regardless of their location, scientists at the University of Queensland set out to measure the influence of cortex's structural characteristics on neuronal patterns.

The new survey revealed a surprising level of structural variety within the cortex. Researchers found the cortex gradually thickens from the back of the brain to the front. Scientists also measured thickness variety within a single functional area of the brain.

Further investigation showed the thickness of the cortex alters the shape of individual neurons. In thicker parts of the cortex, neurons are elongated.

When scientists looked at how neurons with different lengths worked, they found their shape altered the way the neurons process information.

To interpret information, neurons most not only receive information related to sensory experiences, they must also compare those inputs to an internally generated model of the world. Thus, some neurons must be able process two sets of inputs.

Researchers found longer neurons are capable of doing just that. Shorter neurons, even the same types of neurons, weren't able to process two sets of inputs. Shorter neurons featured only a single integration zone for processing sensory data.

Tests showed how a neuron processed information was dependent on its position within the cortex.

"It turns out that they work quite differently," Queensland professor Stephen Williams said in a news release. "Electrically they're even more distinct than we thought."

Researchers described their discovery this week in the journal Neuron.

"Our work demonstrates that the thickness of the neocortex governs not only the anatomical structure of neurons, but also their electrical properties," researcher Lee Fletcher said. "The findings reveal the complexity of computational strategies employed in neocortex, and suggests the neocortex is composed of computationally flexible circuits."

In future studies, scientists hope to determine how neuronal differences impact cognition and behavior.

The authors of the new study think the differences may explain why rodents respond differently to similar but slightly different stimuli. Mice, for example, react more quickly to stimuli from above, like a passing shadow.

Shorter neurons may process sensory information more efficiently when an immediate reaction is necessary, like scurrying for shelter when the shadow of an owl passes overhead. Fight-or-flight stimuli don't need to be integrated and compared with an internal model.

"Information processing may not be useful in such a system, rather what may be required is instinctive reaction," Williams said. "To detect and react to predators, a hard-wired system that works efficiently and very fast may be of survival value. So one idea is that these small neurons are supersensitive to inputs coming in."


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