UC Science Today

Climate change models include many complex factors, from the Earth’s natural cycles to wind patterns. Even clouds must be considered when forecasting things like weather and temperature. At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, physical chemist Kevin Wilson found a way to better predict the size of cloud droplets, which form on aerosolized particles like salt from sea spray. Wilson says the next step is to simplify their findings for these climate change models.

"We’ve studied this cloud droplet formation in our laboratory under very controlled conditions, and so the kinds of models we’ve developed are much too complicated to actually implement in climate models. And so one next step is to be able to distill all of the molecular information to more simple parameterizations that accurately reflect the underlying physics and chemistry, but could be used in the climate model in a computationally efficient way. It’s trying to bridge the gap between simple laboratory experiments and the real complexity of the atmosphere."

Climate change models include many complex factors, from the Earth’s natural cycles to wind patterns. Even clouds must be considered when forecasting things like weather and temperature. At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, physical chemist Kevin Wilson found a way to better predict the size of cloud droplets, which form on aerosolized particles like salt from sea spray. Wilson says the next step is to simplify their findings for these climate change models.

"We’ve studied this cloud droplet formation in our laboratory under very controlled conditions, and so the kinds of models we’ve developed are much too complicated to actually implement in climate models. And so one next step is to be able to distill all of the molecular information to more simple parameterizations that accurately reflect the underlying physics and chemistry, but could be used in the climate model in a computationally efficient way. It’s trying to bridge the gap between simple laboratory experiments and the real complexity of the atmosphere."

This week on Science Today: Astrophysicist Richard Klein of the University of California, Berkeley gives us a glimpse at his new supercomputer simulation that covers 700,000 years of star formation.

"So we start with these turbulent magnetized clouds. Follow the cloud for up to a million years of evolution, all the way to the point where stars can form in clusters."

Klein is currently working on an even larger simulation and hopes they will lead to a comprehensive theory of star formation. With this next piece, we pull our heads out of the clouds and dive into the world of cephalopods – creatures like squid, octopus, and cuttlefish. Although these animals lead strikingly colorful lives, they’re thought to be colorblind. But UC Berkeley graduate student Alexander Stubbs theorizes that their bizarre pupil shape can in fact help them detect color.

"And what we showed in this paper is that their fairly unique pupil shape – with a U-shaped pupil in cuttlefish and squid or a dumbbell shaped bar pupil in octopus – means that they blur their image, but in a color dependent way."

To test his theory, Stubbs had to get creative. His father, Christopher Stubbs of Harvard University, programmed a computer simulation to model this type of eyesight, showing how this color blurring may help explain the paradox of cephalopod vision. We then visit UCLA, where we speak with professor Karen Gylys about how she creatively studies the brain to better understand Alzheimer’s disease. Gylys can essentially isolate synapses - the space between two neurons.

"It’s cryopreserved so that we can get these little spherical, they’re called ‘synaptosomes.’ And so that gives us the ability to sort of see into the synapse – to study what’s happening. We actually purify thousands and thousands synapses."

If you want learn more about research at the University of California, subscribe to UC Science Today on iTunes or Stitcher. You can also follow us on Facebook. Thanks for listening. I’m Larissa Branin.

Subscribe to Science Today:

iTunes: apple.co/1TQBewD

Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/podcast/science-today

Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ucsciencetoday

Stories mentioned in this roundup:

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/supercomputer_stars

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/octopus_eye

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/synapse_brain

A rare disease that causes copper buildup in the liver has revealed how our bodies use the metal nutrient. To learn more about the link between copper and fat metabolism, researcher Chris Chang of the University of California, Berkeley studied mice suffering from a disorder also seen in humans.

"The disease model that we used for the mouse studies is called Wilson’s disease, and it’s a rare genetic disorder that’s directly related to the inability to handle copper in the body. So people who have this type of disease, they have a buildup of copper in the liver. It means that there’s copper deficiency in other organs and tissues throughout the body."

Chang hypothesized that this deficiency would have an impact on fat tissue and its metabolism as well.

"And what we identified in the mice is that if you have too much copper in the liver, then you don’t have enough copper in the fat tissue, then those fat tissues don’t burn fat as well. And so there is a correlation between a rare, but real human disorder."

Since there are high levels of metal nutrients in the brain, the next step is to look at copper and obesity in a neurological context.

A rare disease that causes copper buildup in the liver has revealed how our bodies use the metal nutrient. To learn more about the link between copper and fat metabolism, researcher Chris Chang of the University of California, Berkeley studied mice suffering from a disorder also seen in humans.

"The disease model that we used for the mouse studies is called Wilson’s disease, and it’s a rare genetic disorder that’s directly related to the inability to handle copper in the body. So people who have this type of disease, they have a buildup of copper in the liver. It means that there’s copper deficiency in other organs and tissues throughout the body."

Chang hypothesized that this deficiency would have an impact on fat tissue and its metabolism as well.

"And what we identified in the mice is that if you have too much copper in the liver, then you don’t have enough copper in the fat tissue, then those fat tissues don’t burn fat as well. And so there is a correlation between a rare, but real human disorder."

Since there are high levels of metal nutrients in the brain, the next step is to look at copper and obesity in a neurological context.

This week on Science Today: Astrophysicist Richard Klein of the University of California, Berkeley gives us a glimpse at his new supercomputer simulation that covers 700,000 years of star formation.

"So we start with these turbulent magnetized clouds. Follow the cloud for up to a million years of evolution, all the way to the point where stars can form in clusters."

Klein is currently working on an even larger simulation and hopes they will lead to a comprehensive theory of star formation. With this next piece, we pull our heads out of the clouds and dive into the world of cephalopods – creatures like squid, octopus, and cuttlefish. Although these animals lead strikingly colorful lives, they’re thought to be colorblind. But UC Berkeley graduate student Alexander Stubbs theorizes that their bizarre pupil shape can in fact help them detect color.

"And what we showed in this paper is that their fairly unique pupil shape – with a U-shaped pupil in cuttlefish and squid or a dumbbell shaped bar pupil in octopus – means that they blur their image, but in a color dependent way."

To test his theory, Stubbs had to get creative. His father, Christopher Stubbs of Harvard University, programmed a computer simulation to model this type of eyesight, showing how this color blurring may help explain the paradox of cephalopod vision. We then visit UCLA, where we speak with professor Karen Gylys about how she creatively studies the brain to better understand Alzheimer’s disease. Gylys can essentially isolate synapses - the space between two neurons.

"It’s cryopreserved so that we can get these little spherical, they’re called ‘synaptosomes.’ And so that gives us the ability to sort of see into the synapse – to study what’s happening. We actually purify thousands and thousands synapses."

If you want learn more about research at the University of California, subscribe to UC Science Today on iTunes or Stitcher. You can also follow us on Facebook. Thanks for listening. I’m Larissa Branin.

Subscribe to Science Today:

iTunes: apple.co/1TQBewD

Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/podcast/science-today

Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ucsciencetoday

Stories mentioned in this roundup:

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/supercomputer_stars

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/octopus_eye

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/synapse_brain

A synapse is the point of communication between two neurons and researchers can actually study them in great detail.

"It turns out that we can isolate synapses. They’re about a micron and they reseal themselves into little circles, into little spheres that we can study biochemically."

That’s Karen Gylys, a professor at the UCLA School of Nursing, who has been studying Alzheimer’s disease using cryopreserved tissue.

"It’s cryopreserved so that we can get these little spherical, they’re called ‘synaptosomes’. And so that gives us this ability to sort of see into the synapse – to study what’s happening. We actually purify thousands and thousands of synapses."

Gylys explains that they do this by using a laser-based technology called flow cytometry, which suspends cells in a stream of fluid and passes them one at a time, through an electronic detection apparatus.

"In addition to having the cryopreserved tissue that makes the synaptosomes by use of flow cytometry, we can ask the questions we want to ask with very great precision."

A synapse is the point of communication between two neurons and researchers can actually study them in great detail.

"It turns out that we can isolate synapses. They’re about a micron and they reseal themselves into little circles, into little spheres that we can study biochemically."

That’s Karen Gylys, a professor at the UCLA School of Nursing, who has been studying Alzheimer’s disease using cryopreserved tissue.

"It’s cryopreserved so that we can get these little spherical, they’re called ‘synaptosomes’. And so that gives us this ability to sort of see into the synapse – to study what’s happening. We actually purify thousands and thousands of synapses."

Gylys explains that they do this by using a laser-based technology called flow cytometry, which suspends cells in a stream of fluid and passes them one at a time, through an electronic detection apparatus.

"In addition to having the cryopreserved tissue that makes the synaptosomes by use of flow cytometry, we can ask the questions we want to ask with very great precision."

It looks like octopuses may be able to detect color thanks to their bizarrely shaped pupils. Cephalopods, as colorful as they are, have long been thought to be colorblind. But graduate student Alexander Stubbs of the University of California, Berkeley has a new theory explaining how color vision may still be possible through the chromatic blurring of objects.

"Octopus, squid, and cuttlefish are widely regarded as some of the must colorfully dynamic creatures on planet Earth. But this was somewhat of a mystery because they had no normally known mechanism of sensing the wavelength of light or the color of objects. And what we showed in this paper is that their fairly unique pupil shape – with a U-shaped pupil in cuttlefish and squid or a dumbbell shaped bar pupil in octopus – means that they blur their image, but in a color dependent way. So they’re effectively able to focus through colors, rather than focusing beyond a certain distance."

It looks like octopuses may be able to detect color thanks to their bizarrely shaped pupils. Cephalopods, as colorful as they are, have long been thought to be colorblind. But graduate student Alexander Stubbs of the University of California, Berkeley has a new theory explaining how color vision may still be possible through the chromatic blurring of objects.

"Octopus, squid, and cuttlefish are widely regarded as some of the must colorfully dynamic creatures on planet Earth. But this was somewhat of a mystery because they had no normally known mechanism of sensing the wavelength of light or the color of objects. And what we showed in this paper is that their fairly unique pupil shape – with a U-shaped pupil in cuttlefish and squid or a dumbbell shaped bar pupil in octopus – means that they blur their image, but in a color dependent way. So they’re effectively able to focus through colors, rather than focusing beyond a certain distance."