Ingemar Pongratz

Information om den forskning som Ingemar Pongratz

Researchers Closing in on Causes of Childhood Diabetes

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Diabetes_Research

Researchers may be nearing information on the cause of childhood type 1 diabetes.

Researchers have been working for decades to find a cause for diabetes in children to no avail, but according to a recent article in SVD.se, the answer could be forthcoming.

An international study that included Swedish researchers may be on the verge of yielding fruit as to the causes of type 1 diabetes.  Professor Ake Lernmark from Lund University believes the end result of the study could be a vaccine that virtually eradicates type 1 diabetes in children.

One of the main theories that has scientists excited is the revelation that children who develop type 1 diabetes often produce autoantibodies that attack the cells which produce insulin.  Most children who develop these autoantibodies show signs of illness about six months before they are detectable.  The crux of the remaining research surrounds finding out whether this illness and these destructive autoantibodies are caused by a virus or bacteria.

Swedish researchers are particularly interested in the results of this study since Sweden has the second highest rate of type 1 diabetes diagnosed with children.  Lernmark believes researchers may have actionable results from the study by this summer and will be able to develop a vaccine over the coming years.

New US Study Shows Coffee Can Help Memory

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Coffee_Beans

Improved memory appears to be another benefit of the globally popular caffeinated beverage.

Coffee drinkers rejoice!  It seems as though every new study on the wildly popular caffeinated beverage that comes out reveals some new positive effect.

This time, a United States-based study showed that coffee can actually help improve memory.  SVT.se has all the details in this recent article.

The study, published in Nature Neuroscience was headed up by the University of California.  The experiment asked test subjects to identify photos of various objects and return the next day to see how many of the objects they remembered.  The first half of subjects were given 200 mg of caffeine, while the second half of subjects were given placebo.

When the subjects returned the day after the study to recount the images they saw, the group that received the caffeine pill remembered details far better than their non-caffeinated counterparts.

This new study comes in the wake of several other studies over the past few years which have made it more and more difficult to be a coffee detractor.  Recent studies have debunked the myth that coffee stunts growth in children, can act as an antioxidant, and may have a host of other health benefits.

Oxygen Present on Earth Earlier than Once Thought

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Atmosphere

Scientists believe oxygen may have been present in the Earth’s atmosphere earlier than once thought.

Scientists have long thought the prevalence of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere began around 2.3 billion years ago with what is now known as The Great Oxidation Event.  A recent Live Science article discusses some new research which suggests that oxygen could have been present much earlier than that widely accepted time period.

Scientists in South Africa studying ancient rock samples have discovered high levels of chromium which they view as evidence of a reaction between oxygen and minerals found in Earth’s rocks.  Stunningly, these samples date back to around 600 million years earlier than The Great Oxidation Event.

So what’s the big deal?  The findings suggest that photosynthetic organisms were present on earth much earlier than previously thought.  The team that made the discovery is convinced that the levels oxygen that were present on Earth are far too high to be the product of natural chemical reactions in the atmosphere.  Most scientists agree that the jump in oxygen levels at the time of The Great Oxidation Event were caused by the development of cyanobacteria, which photosynthesize energy from the sun, producing oxygen.  The fact that oxygen levels were higher than once thought before the Great Oxidation Event most likely means that some type of organism was performing photosynthesis much earlier in Earth’s lifespan than previously believed.

Not only do the findings further our understanding of the development of life on our planet, they also change our perception of how long a complex process like photosynthesis takes to develop.  While purely speculative, Sean Crowe of the University of Vancouver believes that the findings could have implications on other planets.  If oxygen producing life forms can develop relatively quickly, it follows that there could be more planets in the universe which have oxygen in the atmosphere and oxygen breathing life forms.  In short, this new research means there could be a larger number of planets which are habitable to humans than we once believed.

How and when any of this research can be applied remains to be seen, but it certainly is an exciting development.