UC Science Today

It used to be thought that all germs and microbes in the gut were bad for us. Trying to eliminate such microbes with disinfectants and antibiotics over the years led to the ‘hygiene hypothesis’, which states that a lack of early childhood exposure to germs, microorganisms and even dirt, can suppress the natural development of the immune system.

"There does seem to be a consistent benefit of being exposed to a more diverse microbial community, regardless of the source of that diversity."

That’s Rob Knight of the University of California, San Diego. He’s one of the world’s leading experts in microbiome research.

"Many different studies linking microbes to health have found that if you have a low diversity microbial community in your gut, you’re more at risk for a range of different diseases. That doesn’t necessarily mean that having a high diversity community is good, but it does point to an association between microbial diversity. And so the goal of a lot of studies going forward is to figure out, if you do something that increases the diversity of microbes, will that have a health benefit?"

It used to be thought that all germs and microbes in the gut were bad for us. Trying to eliminate such microbes with disinfectants and antibiotics over the years led to the ‘hygiene hypothesis’, which states that a lack of early childhood exposure to germs, microorganisms and even dirt, can suppress the natural development of the immune system.

"There does seem to be a consistent benefit of being exposed to a more diverse microbial community, regardless of the source of that diversity."

That’s Rob Knight of the University of California, San Diego. He’s one of the world’s leading experts in microbiome research.

"Many different studies linking microbes to health have found that if you have a low diversity microbial community in your gut, you’re more at risk for a range of different diseases. That doesn’t necessarily mean that having a high diversity community is good, but it does point to an association between microbial diversity. And so the goal of a lot of studies going forward is to figure out, if you do something that increases the diversity of microbes, will that have a health benefit?"

Have you ever wondered about the amazing variety of human faces? And why this variety is far greater than that of most other animals? According to behavioral ecologist Michael Sheehan of the University of California, Berkeley, our highly visual social interactions are one of the main drivers of this evolutionary trend of individually unique faces.

"Recognition is a really important part of our social lives, so therefore there may have been selection for individuals to be more recognizable and make recognition a little bit easier."

The researchers used a U.S. Army database of body measurements and found that, as predicted, facial traits are much more variable than other parts of the body, like the length of the hand, and that facial traits are independent of other facial traits, unlike most body measures.

"And this would be one way to create lots of different variation in the overall phenotype and make individuals more distinctive. So one thing I think this research highlights is an interesting question for people to begin pursuing further about the importance of identity in different types of contexts, what is the benefit of being individual and distinctive under different situations."

Have you ever wondered about the amazing variety of human faces? And why this variety is far greater than that of most other animals? According to behavioral ecologist Michael Sheehan of the University of California, Berkeley, our highly visual social interactions are one of the main drivers of this evolutionary trend of individually unique faces.

"Recognition is a really important part of our social lives, so therefore there may have been selection for individuals to be more recognizable and make recognition a little bit easier."

The researchers used a U.S. Army database of body measurements and found that, as predicted, facial traits are much more variable than other parts of the body, like the length of the hand, and that facial traits are independent of other facial traits, unlike most body measures.

"And this would be one way to create lots of different variation in the overall phenotype and make individuals more distinctive. So one thing I think this research highlights is an interesting question for people to begin pursuing further about the importance of identity in different types of contexts, what is the benefit of being individual and distinctive under different situations."

Have you ever wondered about the amazing variety of human faces? And why this variety is far greater than that of most other animals? According to behavioral ecologist Michael Sheehan of the University of California, Berkeley, our highly visual social interactions are one of the main drivers of this evolutionary trend of individually unique faces.

"Recognition is a really important part of our social lives, so therefore there may have been selection for individuals to be more recognizable and make recognition a little bit easier."

The researchers used a U.S. Army database of body measurements and found that, as predicted, facial traits are much more variable than other parts of the body, like the length of the hand, and that facial traits are independent of other facial traits, unlike most body measures.

"And this would be one way to create lots of different variation in the overall phenotype and make individuals more distinctive. So one thing I think this research highlights is an interesting question for people to begin pursuing further about the importance of identity in different types of contexts, what is the benefit of being individual and distinctive under different situations."

A research team led by NASA Ames and the University of California, Berkeley is designing new shape-shifting robots that could make traditional robots on wheels a thing of the past. Mechanical engineering professor Alice Agogino says that these robots are based on tensegrity structures that allow them to compress and easily maneuver around rough environments. This makes them ideal for not only space exploration, but also Earth-based applications.

"These might be used for home health care because a lot of people live in a very cluttered, messy home with stairs. And we see that search-and-rescue has a lot of potential of being able to drop a tensegrity robot on Planet Earth and then have it walk away and try to find some kind of target, or deliver a payload of supplies for refugees, or something else."

Agogino says that tensegrity robots are also safer.

"These are soft robots that wouldn't injure the person they're trying to help as well."

A research team led by NASA Ames and the University of California, Berkeley is designing new shape-shifting robots that could make traditional robots on wheels a thing of the past. Mechanical engineering professor Alice Agogino says that these robots are based on tensegrity structures that allow them to compress and easily maneuver around rough environments. This makes them ideal for not only space exploration, but also Earth-based applications.

"These might be used for home health care because a lot of people live in a very cluttered, messy home with stairs. And we see that search-and-rescue has a lot of potential of being able to drop a tensegrity robot on Planet Earth and then have it walk away and try to find some kind of target, or deliver a payload of supplies for refugees, or something else."

Agogino says that tensegrity robots are also safer.

"These are soft robots that wouldn't injure the person they're trying to help as well."

A research team led by NASA Ames and the University of California, Berkeley is designing new shape-shifting robots that could make traditional robots on wheels a thing of the past. Mechanical engineering professor Alice Agogino says that these robots are based on tensegrity structures that allow them to compress and easily maneuver around rough environments. This makes them ideal for not only space exploration, but also Earth-based applications.

"These might be used for home health care because a lot of people live in a very cluttered, messy home with stairs. And we see that search-and-rescue has a lot of potential of being able to drop a tensegrity robot on Planet Earth and then have it walk away and try to find some kind of target, or deliver a payload of supplies for refugees, or something else."

Agogino says that tensegrity robots are also safer.

"These are soft robots that wouldn't injure the person they're trying to help as well."

There are three basic types of fat tissue in our bodies – there’s the energy-storing white fat; and two energy-burning fats – a brown fat that arises during fetal development and a beige fat. This is a brown-like fat that’s formed within white fat tissue after exposure to cold temperatures. Kevin Tharp at the University of California, Berkeley, is studying how energy-burning fats can affect overall physiological health.

"Brown fat is an essential organ for maintaining your core body temperature. It’s more essential for infants and small mammals because they can’t shiver as well as more developed creatures like adults. And ultimately what that means is that it actually wastes energy to produce heat and that energy wasting is exactly what the metabolic benefit is."

To tap into this therapeutic concept, Tharp and his colleagues created a novel technique to engineer the growth and expansion of a brown-like fat, which could lead to new approaches to combat obesity, diabetes and other metabolic disorders.

There are three basic types of fat tissue in our bodies – there’s the energy-storing white fat; and two energy-burning fats – a brown fat that arises during fetal development and a beige fat. This is a brown-like fat that’s formed within white fat tissue after exposure to cold temperatures. Kevin Tharp at the University of California, Berkeley, is studying how energy-burning fats can affect overall physiological health.

"Brown fat is an essential organ for maintaining your core body temperature. It’s more essential for infants and small mammals because they can’t shiver as well as more developed creatures like adults. And ultimately what that means is that it actually wastes energy to produce heat and that energy wasting is exactly what the metabolic benefit is."

To tap into this therapeutic concept, Tharp and his colleagues created a novel technique to engineer the growth and expansion of a brown-like fat, which could lead to new approaches to combat obesity, diabetes and other metabolic disorders.