The revolutionary breakthrough is perhaps the most overused cliché in science communications. It's fair to say, though, that this year's chemistry Nobel Prize went for evolutionary breakthroughs.
Scientists from the Spanish Autonomous University of Barcelona have identified a compound that was able to inhibit the aggregation of alpha-synuclein, the main component of Lewy bodies in Parkinson's disease (PD).
Much attention has been devoted to how the gut influences the brain, traditionally via secreted hormones and, more recently, via the microbiome. Now, it turns out that during all that time, a direct neuronal connection using the classical neurotransmitter glutamate from the intestines to brain has been overlooked.
Researchers at the University of Chicago have demonstrated that by transplanting mice with skin cells expressing a cocaine-metabolizing enzyme, they were able to protect the animals from cocaine overdoses, and prevent drug-seeking behavior and relapse in addicted mice.
Science prides itself on being a rational endeavor. But scientists, though they collectively skew more toward Dr. Spock than Dr. Phil as far as personality is concerned, are not immune to the often irrational ways in which our species makes decisions. Research is a cultural activity, and subject to the same cognitive shortcuts and cultural pressures as other cultural activities.
