UC Science Today

The universe is expanding at a rate faster than expected, possibly due to an invisible force in space called dark energy. Astrophysicist David Schlegel of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says they’re looking to the sky for answers using a new sky mapping survey.

"This is a project that’s designed to try to understand the nature of dark energy. We can look at a small patch of the sky and count how many galaxies that we see. And then assuming that every place that you look in the sky is approximately the same, then you just add up."

The team is mapping one third of the visible sky by stitching together images taken by a telescope fit with a new wide-view camera. The data will eventually be used for what’s called the DESI project. The goal is to create the largest and most detailed 3D map of the universe. Until then, the public can view a current online collection of 400,000 galaxies, stars, and quasars at Legacysurvey.org.

The universe is expanding at a rate faster than expected, possibly due to an invisible force in space called dark energy. Astrophysicist David Schlegel of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says they’re looking to the sky for answers using a new sky mapping survey.

"This is a project that’s designed to try to understand the nature of dark energy. We can look at a small patch of the sky and count how many galaxies that we see. And then assuming that every place that you look in the sky is approximately the same, then you just add up."

The team is mapping one third of the visible sky by stitching together images taken by a telescope fit with a new wide-view camera. The data will eventually be used for what’s called the DESI project. The goal is to create the largest and most detailed 3D map of the universe. Until then, the public can view a current online collection of 400,000 galaxies, stars, and quasars at Legacysurvey.org.

The universe is expanding at a rate faster than expected, possibly due to an invisible force in space called dark energy. Astrophysicist David Schlegel of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says they’re looking to the sky for answers using a new sky mapping survey.

"This is a project that’s designed to try to understand the nature of dark energy. We can look at a small patch of the sky and count how many galaxies that we see. And then assuming that every place that you look in the sky is approximately the same, then you just add up."

The team is mapping one third of the visible sky by stitching together images taken by a telescope fit with a new wide-view camera. The data will eventually be used for what’s called the DESI project. The goal is to create the largest and most detailed 3D map of the universe. Until then, the public can view a current online collection of 400,000 galaxies, stars, and quasars at Legacysurvey.org.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness for over half of the world’s population. And while it can be successfully reversed with surgery, what if this age-related eye disease could be treated simply using eye drops? A team of scientists led by the University of California, San Francisco’s Jason Gestwicki is working on just that. They’ve isolated a compound in a chemical class known as sterols that’s more soluble than previously-identified chemicals. So far, it’s reversed cataracts topically in a mouse model.

"But we are currently trying to improve that formulation, use fewer drops that last longer periods of time and to really make sure this is an incredibly safe procedure. And only then will you be able to test the molecule in humans and pet animals to see if it can reverse cataract."

Cataracts are a major source of blindness in developing countries because surgery is often not an option.

"If we could come up with a non-surgical solution to this problem, maybe we’d have a better time accessing rural parts of the world."

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness for over half of the world’s population. And while it can be successfully reversed with surgery, what if this age-related eye disease could be treated simply using eye drops? A team of scientists led by the University of California, San Francisco’s Jason Gestwicki is working on just that. They’ve isolated a compound in a chemical class known as sterols that’s more soluble than previously-identified chemicals. So far, it’s reversed cataracts topically in a mouse model.

"But we are currently trying to improve that formulation, use fewer drops that last longer periods of time and to really make sure this is an incredibly safe procedure. And only then will you be able to test the molecule in humans and pet animals to see if it can reverse cataract."

Cataracts are a major source of blindness in developing countries because surgery is often not an option.

"If we could come up with a non-surgical solution to this problem, maybe we’d have a better time accessing rural parts of the world."

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness for over half of the world’s population. And while it can be successfully reversed with surgery, what if this age-related eye disease could be treated simply using eye drops? A team of scientists led by the University of California, San Francisco’s Jason Gestwicki is working on just that. They’ve isolated a compound in a chemical class known as sterols that’s more soluble than previously-identified chemicals. So far, it’s reversed cataracts topically in a mouse model.

"But we are currently trying to improve that formulation, use fewer drops that last longer periods of time and to really make sure this is an incredibly safe procedure. And only then will you be able to test the molecule in humans and pet animals to see if it can reverse cataract."

Cataracts are a major source of blindness in developing countries because surgery is often not an option.

"If we could come up with a non-surgical solution to this problem, maybe we’d have a better time accessing rural parts of the world."

Have you ever heard the term ‘perceptual narrowing’? It basically refers to the phenomenon where one’s perception is broad from birth, but narrows in time due to experience. Michael Sheehan, a behavioral ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley, says it’s been previously tested with primate faces.

"Primates in general when they’re infants, they are really interested in anything that’s vaguely primate-like face and over time, they become more and more attuned and sort of specialized for learning the feature that are relevant to the particular face of their species. And even so to their population."

Sheehan says a similar process happens when humans learn language.

"So you start out being able to learn any language possible, right? And over time, you focus in on those sounds that you hear the most regularly. And then you become specialized learning one language. The same thing happens with faces – human infants are better at telling apart primate faces than adults are because of the fact that we become more specialized looking at humans in particular."

Have you ever heard the term ‘perceptual narrowing’? It basically refers to the phenomenon where one’s perception is broad from birth, but narrows in time due to experience. Michael Sheehan, a behavioral ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley, says it’s been previously tested with primate faces.

"Primates in general when they’re infants, they are really interested in anything that’s vaguely primate-like face and over time, they become more and more attuned and sort of specialized for learning the feature that are relevant to the particular face of their species. And even so to their population."

Sheehan says a similar process happens when humans learn language.

"So you start out being able to learn any language possible, right? And over time, you focus in on those sounds that you hear the most regularly. And then you become specialized learning one language. The same thing happens with faces – human infants are better at telling apart primate faces than adults are because of the fact that we become more specialized looking at humans in particular."

Have you ever heard the term ‘perceptual narrowing’? It basically refers to the phenomenon where one’s perception is broad from birth, but narrows in time due to experience. Michael Sheehan, a behavioral ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley, says it’s been previously tested with primate faces.

"Primates in general when they’re infants, they are really interested in anything that’s vaguely primate-like face and over time, they become more and more attuned and sort of specialized for learning the feature that are relevant to the particular face of their species. And even so to their population."

Sheehan says a similar process happens when humans learn language.

"So you start out being able to learn any language possible, right? And over time, you focus in on those sounds that you hear the most regularly. And then you become specialized learning one language. The same thing happens with faces – human infants are better at telling apart primate faces than adults are because of the fact that we become more specialized looking at humans in particular."

A potential way to prevent the spread of mosquito-borne diseases like the Zika virus and malaria might be by manipulating receptors in a mosquito’s ‘nose’.* Entomologist Anandasankar Ray of the University of California, Riverside says his lab is working to make humans essentially invisible to a mosquito’ sense of smell.

"Mosquitos use carbon dioxide to navigate towards human beings from a distance. So the idea always has been that perhaps, if we could find small odors that could block the carbon dioxide machinery in the mosquito we may be able to reduce their ability to find us."

Ray’s lab did find such odors. And now, their research has led to the development of a wearable patch that is currently being tested for consumer use.

"And so I am hopeful that this approach will perhaps not only help protect us in our backyard barbeques, but also help have an impact on malaria, in Africa."

* in this case, 'nose' = antennae