Category Archives: Wellness Live

Dolphins use a ‘fat taste’ system to get their mother’s milk

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Juvenile dolphins were found to have specialized receptors for fatty acids on their tongues, offering new insights into their growth and feeding habits.

Scientists have discovered that juvenile bottlenose dolphins have specialized receptors for detecting the fatty acids in their mother’s milk. These findings, published in the journal Marine Mammal Science, offer important insights into how these marine mammals grow, feed, and communicate.

The new findings challenge previous assumptions about cetacean sensory systems. Unlike land mammals, dolphins and other marine mammals have limited olfactory capabilities – their sense of smell is largely nonfunctional in aquatic environments. Researchers have therefore speculated that dolphins had other ways of sensing their surroundings and detecting food.

Fat plays an essential role in providing energy and supporting brain development in dolphin calves, which are entirely dependent on their mother’s milk during their early stages of life.

“We looked at the tongue of a young Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin and confirmed special structures that may help it detect fat,” says the study’s first author Hinako Katsushima of the Graduate School of Environmental Science at Japan’s Hokkaido University. “At the back of the tongue, there’s a V-shaped row of taste receptors that are specifically tuned to pick up fatty acids. These receptors also have enzymes that help break down the fat, making it easier for the dolphin to sense and process it.”

In a second experiment, the team gave young dolphins a choice between two liquids: one containing milk and the other a cloudy solution. The dolphin showed an unexpected preference for the cloudy solution. This reinforces the finding that dolphins can distinguish between the two liquids, but the researchers are unsure why they avoided the milk. One possibility is that they found the milk unfamiliar – it was a mixture of milk from two females – and so avoided it from a fear of new foods, a habit called neophobia.

“Our findings suggest that the ability to detect fatty acids in their mother’s milk is part of a specialized ‘fat taste’ system that could help dolphins assess the nutritional value of their food,” says Assistant Professor Takashi Hayakawa from the Faculty of Environmental Earth Science at Hokkaido University, who led the study. “In the wild, where fat-rich diets are critical for survival, this capability may provide dolphins with an evolutionary advantage, allowing them to select high-quality milk from their mothers and later evaluate the nutritional content of their prey.”

The new study opens new avenues for understanding how marine mammals perceive and interact with their environment, as well as how they communicate and forage in the wild. Further research will be necessary to explore the full scope of this “fat taste” system and how it functions in other marine species.

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Treat eating disorders as an emergency, MPs urge

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The alarming rise in disorders such as anorexia and bulimia is now an emergency, a cross-party group says.

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New study uncovers key mechanism behind learning and memory

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A breakthrough study published today in the Journal of Neurosciencesheds new light on how brain cells relay critical information from their extremities to their nucleus, leading to the activation of genes essential for learning and memory.

Researchers have identified a key pathway that links how neurons send signals to each other, or synaptic activity, to the expression of genes necessary for long-term changes in the brain, providing crucial insights into the molecular processes underlying memory formation.

“These findings illuminate a critical mechanism that connects local synaptic activity to the broader gene expression changes necessary for learning and memory,” said Mark Dell’Acqua, professor of pharmacology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and senior author of the study. “This paper is mainly a basic science finding of a fundamental process of what nerve cells do. Understanding this relay system not only enhances our knowledge of brain function but could also better inform therapeutic treatments for cognitive disorders.”

The nucleus where the genes that modify neuron function are controlled is a long distance away from where neurons receive input from their synapses, which are located in distant dendrites that extend like branches from the trunk of a tree. This research focuses on the cAMP-response element binding protein (CREB), a transcription factor known to regulate genes vital for dynamic changes at synapses which is essential for neuronal communication. Despite CREB’s well-documented role in supporting learning and memory, the exact mechanisms leading to CREB activation during neuronal activity remain unclear.

Using advanced microscopy techniques, graduate student Katlin Zent in Dr. Dell’Acqua’s research group revealed a crucial relay mechanism involving the activation of receptors and ion channels generating calcium signals that rapidly communicates from synapses in remote dendrite branches to the nucleus in the neuron cell body.

“Going forward, this research will enable us to better examine the way these pathways are utilized in different disease states,” said Dell’Acqua. “We could see exactly what parts of this new mechanism are interfered with and where, giving us a better idea of how this pathway affecting learning and memory is impacted. This research highlights potential targets for interventions aimed at conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and other memory-related disorders.”

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First drug consumption room user figures revealed

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The Safer Drugs Consumption Facility in Glasgow opened on 13 January, letting people take substances under supervision.

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US exit from WHO could see fifth of budget disappear

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Trump has long been critical of how the Geneva-based institution handled the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Nigel Farage Squirms As He Admits He ‘Did Not Make The Cut’ To Key Part Of Trump Inauguration

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Nigel Farage had to admit he did not “make the cut” to sit in the Capitol rotunda to watch Donald Trump’s inauguration yesterday – but Boris Johnson did.

The Reform UK leader has long cast himself as a close friend to the US president, even offering to be the UK ambassador to Washington for the second Trump administration.

However, he had to admit the limits to that friendship on GB News last night.

When presenter Chris Hope asked if Farage was in the prestigious room in the middle of the Capitol building where Trump was sworn in, Farage haltingly replied: “No, no, no… didn’t make the cut, sadly.

“I had a good seat… but, no, I mean, look. Frankly, err, it… you know.”

Hope said: “I saw Boris Johnson in there, in rotunda, is he now the person Trump speaks to more than you?”

“No, he’s a former prime minister of the nation,” Farage said, slightly angrily. “He’s an occasional friend of Donald Trump.

“He supports Donald Trump when he’s going up and he doesn’t support Donald Trump when he’s going down. And I’ve supported him consistently now for almost a decade.”

Johnson has quite the on-off friendship with Trump, having slammed him in 2015 for “betraying a quite stupefying ignorance” for falsely saying there were “no-go zones” in London and claiming that he was “unfit” to become president.

While they spoke highly of one another while Trump was in office for his first term, Johnson then said the outgoing president was “completely wrong” for encouraging his supporters to storm the Capitol in 2021.

But by January 2024, Johnson – no longer PM or MP – said Trump’s return could be a “big win for the world”.

Meanwhile, Farage has been an avid Trump supporter for years, speaking at multiple rallies and flying over to the US repeatedly to back the Republican, despite critics asking why he is not more dedicated to his constituency.

The MP for Clacton was also a robust supporter of Trump’s new right-hand man, tech billionaire Elon Musk – until the world’s richest man turned on him earlier this month.

Hours after Farage told the media the X CEO was a “hero”, Musk claimed Reform needed a new leader because the current one “doesn’t have what it takes”.

The sudden split came after the Reform leader tried to distance himself from imprisoned far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whom Musk claimed should be released from jail.

Farage later said he wanted to “mend” his relationship with Musk.

Johnson was not the only former PM to fly to the US for the inauguration as Liz Truss also attended.

Current PM Keir Starmer was not invited, although that is in line with tradition – no serving UK prime minister has ever attended the swearing-in ceremony of a US president going back to when records began in 1874, according to analysis from the Press Association.

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Chris Hope, \"You watched the inauguration, where were you, were you in the Capital rotunda?\"

Nigel Farage, \"No.. No.. No.. Didn’t make the cut.. I had a good seat.. But.. No.. I mean look.. Frankly.. Err.. It.. You know\"

Chris Hope, \"I saw Boris Johnson in there, is he now the… pic.twitter.com/SsIEmMUodM

— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) January 21, 2025

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Chris Hope, “You watched the inauguration, where were you, were you in the Capital rotunda?”

Nigel Farage, “No.. No.. No.. Didn’t make the cut.. I had a good seat.. But.. No.. I mean look.. Frankly.. Err.. It.. You know”

Chris Hope, “I saw Boris Johnson in there, is he now the… pic.twitter.com/SsIEmMUodM

— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) January 21, 2025

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