On 26 April 2016 an event at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile marked the brilliant first light for the four powerful lasers that form a crucial part of the adaptive optics systems on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Attendees were treated to a spectacular display of cutting-edge laser technology against the majestic skies of Paranal. These are the most powerful laser guide stars ever used for astronomy and mark the first use of multiple laser guide stars at ESO. This spectacular image shows the four beams emerging from the new laser system on Unit Telescope 4 of the VLT. Credit: ESO/F. Kamphues

On 26 April 2016 ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile hosted an event to mark the first light for the four powerful lasers that form a crucial part of the adaptive optics systems on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Attendees were treated to a spectacular display of cutting-edge laser technology against the majestic skies of Paranal. These are the most powerful laser guide stars ever used for astronomy and the event marks the first use of multiple laser guide stars at ESO.

ESO staff were present for the event, along with senior representatives of the companies that have manufactured the different components of the new system.

The Four Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF) shines four 22-watt laser beams into the sky to create artificial guide stars by making sodium atoms in the upper atmosphere glow so that they look just like real stars [1]. The artificial stars allow the adaptive optics systems to compensate for the blurring caused by the Earth’s atmosphere and so that the telescope can create sharp images. Using more than one laser allows the turbulence in the atmosphere to be mapped in far greater detail to significantly improve the image quality over a larger field of view.

The Four Laser Guide Star Facility is an example of how ESO enables European industry to lead complex research and development projects. The fibre laser used by the 4LGSF is also one of the most successful transfers of ESO technology to industry.

TOPTICA, the German main contractor, was responsible for the laser system and provided the oscillator, the frequency doubler, and the system control software. Wilhelm Kaenders, president of TOPTICA, said: “TOPTICA has enjoyed the collaboration with ESO tremendously. It is not only the personal thrill of being engaged with astronomy, an old passion, again, and working with very clever ESO technologists; it is also the inspiration that we have received for our own commercial product development.” [2]

MPBC of Canada provided the fibre laser pumps and Raman amplifiers, which are based on an ESO licensed patent. Jane Bachynski, President of MPB Communications Inc. said: “MPBC is proud to have worked with ESO in the development of Raman fibre amplifiers to much higher powers, allowing MPBC to bring this technology to the stars. This event marks the culmination of many years of hard work on behalf of all involved.” [3]

TNO in the Netherlands manufactured the optical tube assemblies, which expand the laser beams and direct them into the sky. Paul de Krom, CEO of TNO, said: “TNO valued the cooperative working environment during the development of the optical tube assemblies and looks forward to the opportunity to work with ESO and the other partners in the 4LGSF project in the future.” [4]

The 4LGSF is part of the Adaptive Optics Facility on Unit Telescope 4 of the VLT, designed specifically to provide the adaptive optics systems GALACSI/MUSE and GRAAL/HAWK-I with four sodium laser guide stars. With this new facility, Paranal Observatory continues to have the most advanced and the largest number of adaptive optics systems in operation today.

The 4LGSF lasers were developed by ESO with industry and have already been procured, among others, by the Keck Observatory (which contributed to the industrial laser development cost along with the European Commission) and the Subaru Telescope. In the future these industrial lasers will also feature on the telescopes at the Gemini Observatory and will be the preferred choice for several other observatories and extremely large telescope projects.

The new techniques developed for the Four Laser Guide Star Facility pave the way for the adaptive optics system of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), the world’s biggest eye on the sky.

This schematic view shows how the Four Laser Guide Star Facility is installed on the Unit Telescope 4 of ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The different components are labelled. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Notes

[1] The 4LGSF is the second generation laser guide star facility, built by ESO for the Adaptive Optics Facility on the UT4 VLT telescope. The two critical long-lead items for the 4LGSF, the laser system and the optical tube assemblies for the laser launch telescope systems have been procured from industry. The fibre Raman laser technology, on which the 4LGSF laser system is based, has been developed at ESO, patented and licensed to industry.

[2] This project has allowed TOPTICA to extend its products into a new wavelength and output power regime. It now produces the SodiumStar 20/2, which is recognized as a quasi-standard for existing and planned telescopes around the world. All next generation extremely large telescope projects, for example, use the SodiumStar laser as their baseline. During the seven years of collaboration with ESO the company has grown from 80 people to more than 200 today.

[3] MPBC’s collaboration with ESO has also generated an additional benefit, in the form of an offshoot product line of single frequency amplification products at virtually any wavelength, supporting novel applications for the scientific and commercial research community.

[4] The developments by TNO also involved contributions from many suppliers from the Netherlands (Vernooy, Vacutech, Rovasta, Schott Benelux, Maxon Motor Benelux, IPS technology, Sensordata and WestEnd) and other international companies (RMI, Qioptiq, Laser Components, Carl Zeiss, GLP, Faes, Farnell, Eriks and Pfeiffer). The knowledge and technologies advanced by working with ESO feed into TNO’s Dutch and European partners, in fields including astronomy, communications, semiconductor manufacturing, medical devices, space science and Earth observation.

The chief of Argentina’s cabinet, Anibal Fernandez, said today that the transparency of presidential elections, set for next Sunday, is ensured and everything is ready.

In his customary meeting with the media at the Casa Rosada, seat of the Government, Fernandez denied that the results of the vote will take one week and confirmed that 48 hours after elections the final count begins.

In this regard, he said that everything is ready and cables with the results of the polling stations will be posted on the Internet, hence anyone in doubt could check them without problems and they will match the results with the station, district and province.

The Argentinian people are called to vote for the successor of Cristina Fernandez, who will take on power on December 10.

They will also vote for 24 new senators that represent a third of the 72-seat Senate and 130 parliamentarians, as well as the authorities of 11 out of 24 provinces in the country, including governors and provincial lawmakers. (PL)

Nomad Films has announced the world broadcast premiere of its new documentary, Giraffes: The Forgotten Giants, co-written and directed by award winning Mark Johnston (To Bee or Not to Bee; The Climb; The Al Qaeda Code and Empire of the Word).

Everyone on the planet knows what a giraffe is.  “G” is for Giraffe in the alphabet and “Sophie” the Giraffe teething toys can be found in the hands of practically every newborn baby.  But, most people don’t know much about giraffes, or that these iconic creatures of wild Africa, with their long necks, cinnamon spotted coats, flirty lashes and loping gait are disappearing at an alarming rate.  Two hundred years ago there were a million giraffes, in 2000 there were 140,000 roaming Africa’s plains and forests.  Now, fifteen years later, their numbers have plummeted to less than 80,000.

And, yet there has been a bewildering lack of awareness and recognition of the threat to the survival of these gentle giants, especially compared to the other large mammals of Africa.   Giraffes: The Forgotten Giants delves into the reasons behind this “silent extinction” and introduces us to the scientists, and biologists who are making remarkable headway gathering new information in labs, universities and in the field, that may stave off their impending demise.

Until the ground breaking work carried out by University of Waterloo’s Dr. Anne Innis Dagg, nothing was known about giraffes.   After earning her Master’s Degree at the University of Toronto, she went alone to Africa in 1956–57 to study the behavior of giraffes in the wild – a study which was the first of its kind for any animal in Africa.  Her 1976 book, The Giraffe: its Biology, Behavior and Ecology.’ is the bible in the field.

“Anne is the Jane Goodall of giraffe research” says Anne’s friend, co-worker and contemporary, John Doherty who is the Coordinator of the Reticulated Giraffe Project in Samburu, Africa where much of ‘Giraffes: The Forgotten Giants was filmed this past spring.

Doherty, along with other scientists, including wildlife biologist Dr. Zoe Muller, is carrying out ground breaking studies in the areas of infrasound (low frequency sound humans can’t hear), and biometrics, using the most current research and state of the art technology.   Because they have very little experience of the technical work of recording this low frequency soundscape in the field, Forgotten Giants’ sound recordist Jason Milligan spent months putting together the necessary equipment to do the delicate recording featured in the film.   At Samburu, they made recordings that may prove giraffes use infrasound to communicate.  It is potentially a world first that could give a voice to these seemingly silent creatures.

Also using cutting edge FLIR THERMAL CAMERA TECHNOLOGY, Doherty and Muller are able to observe giraffes at night, in a natural, relaxed manner, without scaring them away.  Giraffes are shy, skittish creatures, and DOP Russell Gienapp built platforms on Toyota Land Cruisers, filming behind blinds built by locals in the style of a Samburu home, to keep them running away from his cameras.

Giraffes: The Forgotten Giants also introduces us to a number of individual giraffes – both in the wild in Africa and in captivity in Canada.

We learn from Dr. Zoe Muller that giraffes who were previously thought to be bad mothers, in fact have a very strong social bond with their young.  They not only take care of their own infants, but also those of other mothers – displaying babysitting behaviors, shared nursing, grieving, and dedicated guarding of their young at night.

Jason Pootoolal, a young zookeeper at African Lion Safari in Hamilton, Ontario introduces us to the first giraffe born by artificial insemination.  He and his team are developing assisted reproductive techniques for a highly endangered subspecies of giraffe.  Their research has garnered them the award for Outstanding Achievement from the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums and holds great promise towards bolstering the giraffe population.

At African Lion Safari, the crew were able to film with no problem, since the giraffes are used to interacting with Jason and his team, especially during their regular ultrasounds to monitor the pregnancies of the females they have artificially inseminated in their world leading program.

The more that is revealed about their biology and behaviors, the more we can do to help giraffes.   We know they are killed for their meat, and are threatened by environment encroachment by the locals.  We know they are at risk from the large predators they live amongst.  But is there more to the story?

Right now, more than any time in their history, we need to listen to these seemingly silent giants.  Through the work of the scientists in Giraffes: The Forgotten Giants, that might soon be possible

For more info:

CBC-TV’s The Nature of Things Website:  http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/

Trailer:

This new image from the largest planet in the Solar System, Jupiter, was made during the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) programme. The images from this programme make it possible to determine the speeds of Jupiter’s winds, to identify different phenomena in its atmosphere and to track changes in its most famous features. The map shown was observed on 19 January 2015, from 2:00 UT to 12:30 UT. Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (GSFC), M. Wong (UC Berkeley), and G. Orton (JPL-Caltech)

Scientists using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced new maps of Jupiter that show the continuing changes in its famous Great Red Spot. The images also reveal a rare wave structure in the planet’s atmosphere that has not been seen for decades. The new image is the first in a series of annual portraits of the Solar System’s outer planets, which will give us new glimpses of these remote worlds, and help scientists to study how they change over time.

In this new image of Jupiter a broad range of features has been captured, including winds, clouds and storms. The scientists behind the new images took pictures of Jupiter using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 over a ten-hour period and have produced two maps of the entire planet from the observations. These maps make it possible to determine the speeds of Jupiter’s winds, to identify different phenomena in its atmosphere and to track changes in its most famous features.

The new images confirm that the huge storm, which has raged on Jupiter’s surface for at least three hundred years, continues to shrink, but that it may not go out without a fight. The storm, known as the Great Red Spot, is seen here swirling at the centre of the image of the planet. It has been decreasing in size at a noticeably faster rate from year to year for some time. But now, the rate of shrinkage seems to be slowing again, even though the spot is still about 240 kilometres smaller than it was in 2014.

The spot’s size is not the only change that has been captured by Hubble. At the centre of the spot, which is less intense in colour than it once was, an unusual wispy filament can be seen spanning almost the entire width of the vortex. This filamentary streamer rotates and twists throughout the ten-hour span of the Great Red Spot image sequence, distorted by winds that are blowing at 540 kilometres per hour.

There is another feature of interest in this new view of our giant neighbour. Just north of the planet’s equator, researchers have found a rare wave structure, of a type that has been spotted on the planet only once before, decades ago by the Voyager 2 mission, which was launched in 1977. In the Voyager 2 images the wave was barely visible and astronomers began to think its appearance was a fluke, as nothing like it has been seen since, until now.

The current wave was found in a region dotted with cyclones and anticyclones. Similar waves — called baroclinic waves — sometimes appear in the Earth’s atmosphere where cyclones are forming. The wave may originate in a clear layer beneath the clouds, only becoming visible when it propagates up into the cloud deck, according to the researchers.

The observations of Jupiter form part of the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) programme, which will allow Hubble to dedicate time each year to observing the outer planets. In addition to Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus have already been observed as part of the programme and maps of these planets will be placed in the public archive. Saturn will be added to the series later. The collection of maps that will be built up over time will help scientists not only to understand the atmospheres of giant planets in the Solar System, but also the atmospheres of our own planet and of the planets that are being discovered around other stars.

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Without pause and after three days of the Sustainable Development Summit, governments from 193 countries begin another marathon of speeches today to start the 70th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. As is tradition, Brazil, in the person of its president, Dilma Rousseff, will open the list of speakers, covering a whole week, and will be followed by the president of the United States, the host country of the world organization, Barack Obama.

In the morning session of the first day there will also be speeches by the heads of state of Poland, Andrzej Duda; Russia, Vladimir Putin, Iran, Hassan Rouhani; France, Francois Hollande, and Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, among others up to 17.

The evening will have a strong Latin American presence with the attendance of the presidents of Chile, Michele Bachelet; Cuba, Raul Castro; Argentina, Cristina Fernández; Paraguay, Horacio Cartes; Ecuador, Rafael Correa; Bolivia, Evo Morales, and Peru, Ollanta Humala, and 13 others.

This year the debates include special meeting devoted to the 70th anniversary of the UN, which met on 24 October.

After the summit on sustainable development concluded here yesterday, a high-level debate on peace and security, to be held on 1 and 2 October is scheduled.

The agenda for the year contains hot topics in the world today as the fight against poverty and climate change, which includes disarmament, trade, economy, security, combating terrorism, peace missions of the UN, health and many others are added aspects.

As in previous years, the call is for a reform of the Security Council and revitalization of the General Assembly. (PL)

Pope Francis concludes his five-day tour of the United States with a mass in Philadelphia, which will serve as a culmination to the 8th World Meeting of Families today.

After a long Saturday, the Pope will meet with bishops in the chapel of St. Martin, from the Seminary St. Carlos Borromeo, and then will visit the Curran-Fromhold Prison.

In the afternoon a mass is scheduled that will close the activities of the World Meeting of Families, prelude to the Synod on the social institution, to be held in the Vatican from October 4 to 25.

The Pope will participate also on a visit to organizers, volunteers and benefactors of that event in the Atlantic Aviation, which will precede his departure for Rome, scheduled for 20:00 local time.

Francisco will then end the longest trip of his pontificate, since he arrived to the US on the 22nd from Cuba, where he carried out an intense pastoral visit which started the 19.

Yesterday, His Holiness celebrated a mass in the Cathedral St. Peter and Paul, of Philadelphia, where he praised the role of women in Catholicism again and called for greater involvement in the work of the Church of Catholic laymen “in a society that is rapidly changing.”

He asked before bishops and clergy for “a sense of shared partnership and responsibility in planning the future of our parishes and institutions” without implying “to renounce the spiritual authority entrusted to us.”

Also, this Saturday Francis came to the Independence Mall in Philadelphia- where in 1776 the Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies took place- where Francis again met tens of thousands of fans gathered to greet him and hear his message on immigration and religious freedom.

Finally, the Bishop of Rome attended the Festival of Families in the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

During this northern tour Francisco met with President Barack Obama at the White House, gave speeches before the Congress and the General Assembly of the United Nations, and paid tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The head of the Vatican State has made called to welcome immigrants, for the social inclusion in large cities, and an ideal of human progress based on solidarity and environmental protection, consultation and dialogue among nations, the elimination of nuclear weapons and war, among other issues. (PL)

The 8^th annual Toronto Palestine Film Festival brings the best Palestinian films, music, art and food to Toronto. The festival kicks off on September 24th, 2015 with the Canadian premiere of “Eyes of a Thief” by Najwa Najjar, a film inspired by true events of a man who returns home  after a decade of imprisonment to find his daughter.

Refugee Films

The closing day programming is dedicated to refugees and conflicts. The day starts “Born in Gaza” by Hernan Zin, a documentary about children rebuilding their lives after last summer’s attack on Gaza. It is then followed by two films about Syrian refugees – “Letters from Al Yarmouk” by Rashid Masharawi and “On the Bride’s Side” by Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry, Antonio Augugliaro, Gabriele Del Grande.

47Soul Concert

After the opening night film (Sept 24), TPFF is hosting a concert with 47Soul at Lula Lounge (doors 9pm, tickets $25 in advance).  Formed in 2013, 47Soul’s new wave of electro-debke Arabic street music has garnered them a large following in the underground music scenes of Europe and the Middle East, and landed them on the stages of prominent UK music festivals including Womad, Glastonbury and Bestival. Presented in collaboration with Small World Music Festival.

Food and Art

TPFF brings back the always popular Sahtain! Palestinian Brunch featuring a qanun performance by Dr. George Sawa.  The event is hosted and catered by District Oven. Tickets $25.

This year’s art show TPFF Art Show will feature the specially curated works of performance artist Basil AlZeri. This free exhibition will take place at Jackman Hall (AGO) before and after the 2PM and 4PM screenings on Saturday and Sunday (Sept 26- 27). Curated by Ibrahim Abusitta.

Excited to see you all at #TPFF2015!

The 8^th annual TPFF takes place Sept 24-27, 2015. See tpff.ca for details.

Details at a glimpse:

What: 8^th Toronto Palestine Film Festival
When: September 24-27, 2015
Where: TIFF Bell Lightbox, AGO Jackman Hall, Lula Lounge, District Oven
Tickets and Program: www.tpff.ca/program and TIFF Bell Lightbox box office
Price: $8 students/seniors; $12 regular
Festival Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ZYkkkeT3Y
Twitter: @TPFF   #TPFF2015
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TorontoPalestineFilmFestival

imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is bursting at the seams with the best in Indigenous Art, Digital Media Works and Exhibitions, including the opening of the new installation by Kent Monkman, the inaugural Digital Media Art+Cade, and a music showcase at The Beat’s DJ POW! WOW!.

On Friday, October 16, as part of the public opening of Kent Monkman’s new installation, The Rise and Fall of Civilization, at the Gardiner Museum, imagineNATIVE will present Kent Monkman: Miss Chief in Motion, a series of Monkman’s short films featuring Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, the artist’s iconic drag queen alter ego. Kent Monkman will be in attendance for an audience discussion after the screening, followed by a tour of the exhibition guided by the artist himself. The Rise and Fall of Civilization will continue on display until January 10, 2016, and features a “buffalo jump” crowned by a sculpture of Miss Chief and two full-sized bison. Sculptures of cubist-style bison plunge headlong into the gallery, violently shattering at the base of the cliff in a pile of broken ceramics, referencing the build-up of bones often found at buffalo jumps in the 1800s, as well as the history of Indigenous ceramics found at sites across North America.

imagineNATIVE with support from the Canada Media Fund, is proud to present the first-ever Digital Media Art+Cade, a new interactive hangout showcasing Indigenous-made video games, web series, radio and audio works, digital apps and virtual reality experiences from October 15 – 18 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The Digital Media Art+Cade will feature retro arcade-style booths and consoles loaded with five video games created by Indigenous females aged 13 to 24; the PlayStation 4 hit Never Alone; Indigenous Virtual Reality demonstrations featuring A Tribe Called Red and Tanya Tagaq; and six Audio Works featuring storytelling, documentaries and podcasts.

imagineNATIVE’s beloved Art Crawl is back with a mixture of inspiring, insightful, and entertaining visual art exhibitions! The historic 401 Richmond Building will once again play host to the best in contemporary Indigenous media art, commissions and retrospectives on Friday, October 16, in four galleries: Vtape/VMAC Gallery, Trinity Square Video, A Space Gallery and YYZ Artists’ Outlet.

imagineNATIVE‘s music showcase The Beat, presented by Slaight Music, will make its triumphant return to Revival nightclub on Saturday, October 17 with DJ POW! WOW! featuring three dynamic Indigenous DJs: DJ Akkil, fusing ‘80s synth with traditional Sámi joiks; Glitclit, pumping out a mix of heavy electronic beats with out-of-this-world chanting; and madeskimo, a.k.a. Geronimo Inutiq, remixing traditional Inuit music with modern electronic sounds.

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the world’s largest Indigenous festival showcasing innovation in film, video, audio and digital media. The Festival presents the most compelling and distinctive works from Canada and around the globe, reflecting the diversity of the world’s Indigenous nations and illustrating the vitality and excellence of Native art and culture in contemporary media.

The 16th annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival will be held in Toronto October 14-18, 2015.

Early Bird Ticket Packages and Delegate Passes are now on sale for a limited time

For more information please call 416.585.2333 or visit www.imagineNATIVE.org

Opening night film trailer:

Scientists have pinpointed a population of neurons in the brain that influences whether one drink leads to two, which could ultimately lead to a cure for alcoholism and other addictions.

A study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience by researchers at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, finds that alcohol consumption alters the structure and function of neurons in the dorsomedial striatum, a part of the brain known to be important in goal-driven behaviors. The findings could be an important step toward creation of a drug to combat alcoholism.

“Alcoholism is a very common disease,” said Jun Wang, M.D., Ph.D., the lead author on the paper and an assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics at the Texas A&M College of Medicine, “but the mechanism is not understood very well.”

Now, Wang and his team have helped come a little closer to that understanding. Using an animal model, the researchers determined that alcohol actually changes the physical structure of medium spiny neurons, the main type of cell in the striatum. These neurons can be thought of like a tree, with many branches, and many small protrusions, or spines, coming off of them. They each have one of two types of dopamine receptors, D1 or D2, and so can be thought of as either D1 or D2 neurons. D1 neurons are informally called part of a “go” pathway in the brain, while D2 neurons are in the “no-go” pathway. In other words, when D2 neurons are activated, they discourage action — telling you to wait, to stop, to do nothing.

Although it is well known that the neurotransmitter dopamine is involved in addiction, this study goes further, showing that the dopamine D1 receptor also plays an important role in addiction. The team found that periodic consumption of large amounts of alcohol acts on D1 neurons, making them much more excitable, which means that they activate with less stimulation.

“If these neurons are excited, you will want to drink alcohol,” Wang said. “You’ll have a craving.” That is to say, when neurons with D1 receptors are activated, they compel you to perform an action — reaching for another bottle of tequila, in this case. This then creates a cycle, where drinking causes easier activation, and activation causes more drinking.

These changes in activation of D1 neurons might be related to the physical changes happening at the sub-cellular level in brains that have been exposed to alcohol. They have longer branching and more of the mature, mushroom-shaped spines — the type that stores long-term memories — than their abstaining counterparts.

Conversely, the placebo group, the ones not exposed to alcohol, tended to have more of the immature versions of the mushroom-shaped spines in D1 neurons of their brains. The total number of spines didn’t change in the two groups, but the ratio between mature and immature was dramatically different between the alcohol group and the placebo group. This has important implications for memory and learning in drug addiction.

“When you drink alcohol, long-term memory is enhanced, in a way,” Wang said. “But this memory process is not useful — in fact, it underlies addiction since it affects the ‘go’ neurons.” Because there was no difference in the number of each type of spine in the D2 (no-go) neurons of alcohol-consuming and control models, the researchers realized there was a specific relationship between D1 neurons and alcohol consumption.

“We’re now able to study the brain at the neuron-specific and even spine-specific level,” Wang said.

How do you determine which neuron, which type of neurons or which group of neurons is responsible for a specific disease? That’s what the next part of the study tried to answer.

The alcohol-consuming animal models with the increased mature spines in D1 neurons also showed an increased preference to drink large quantities of alcohol when given the choice.

“Even though they’re small, D1 receptors are essential for alcohol consumption,” Wang said.

Furthermore, and perhaps most excitingly, when those same animal models were given a drug to at least partially block the D1 receptor, they showed much-reduced desire to drink alcohol. However, a drug that inhibited the D2 dopamine receptors had no effect. “If we suppress this activity, we’re able to suppress alcohol consumption,” Wang said. “This is the major finding. Perhaps in the future, researchers can use these findings to develop a specific treatment targeting these neurons.”

The study, which was co-authored with researchers from the University of California San Francisco, was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

“My ultimate goal is to understand how the addicted brain works,” Wang said, “and once we do, one day, we’ll be able to suppress the craving for another round of drinks and ultimately, stop the cycle of alcoholism.” (Via Texas A&M University and written by Christina Summers)

A new study led by a UC San Francisco sleep researcher supports what parents have been saying for centuries: to avoid getting sick, be sure to get enough sleep.

The team, which included researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, found that people who sleep six hours a night or less are four times more likely to catch a cold when exposed to the virus, compared to those who spend more than seven hours a night in slumber land.

This is the first study to use objective sleep measures to connect people’s natural sleep habits and their risk of getting sick, according to Aric Prather, PhD, assistant professor of Psychiatry at UCSF and lead author of the study. The findings add to the growing evidence of the importance of sleep for our health, he said. 

“Short sleep was more important than any other factor in predicting subjects’ likelihood of catching cold,” Prather said. “It didn’t matter how old people were, their stress levels, their race, education or income. It didn’t matter if they were a smoker. With all those things taken into account, statistically sleep still carried the day.”

The study, “Behaviorally assessed sleep and susceptibility to the common cold,” appears online and in the September issue of the journal Sleep.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention call insufficient sleep a public health epidemic, linking poor sleep with car crashes, industrial disasters and medical errors. According to a 2013 survey by the National Sleep Foundation, one in five Americans gets less than six hours of sleep on the average work night, the worst tally of the six countries surveyed.

Scientists have long known that sleep is important for our health, with poor sleep linked to chronic illnesses, disease susceptibility and even premature death. Prather’s previous studies have shown that people who sleep fewer hours are less protected against illness after receiving a vaccine. Other studies have confirmed that sleep is among the factors that regulate T-cell levels.

Testing the Ability to Fight Off the Cold Virus

To learn how sleep affects the body’s response to a real infection, Prather collaborated with renowned Carnegie Mellon psychologist Sheldon Cohen, PhD, the study’s senior author, who has spent years exploring psychological and social factors contributing to illness. Cohen’s group gives volunteers the common cold virus to safely test how these various factors affect the body’s ability to fight off disease. For this paper, Prather approached Cohen about investigating sleep and cold susceptibility using data collected in his lab’s recent study, in which participants wore sensors to get objective, sleep measurements.

To learn how sleep affects the body’s response to a real infection, Prather collaborated with renowned Carnegie Mellon psychologist Sheldon Cohen, PhD, the study’s senior author, who has spent years exploring psychological and social factors contributing to illness. Cohen’s group gives volunteers the common cold virus to safely test how these various factors affect the body’s ability to fight off disease. For this paper, Prather approached Cohen about investigating sleep and cold susceptibility using data collected in his lab’s recent study, in which participants wore sensors to get objective, sleep measurements.

“We had worked with Dr. Prather before and were excited about the opportunity to have an expert in the effects of sleep on health take the lead in addressing this important question,” Cohen said.

Researchers recruited 164 volunteers from the Pittsburgh area between 2007 and 2011. The recruits underwent two months of health screenings, interviews and questionnaires to establish baselines for factors such as stress, temperament, and alcohol and cigarette use. The researchers also measured participants’ normal sleep habits a week prior to administering the cold virus, using a watch-like sensor that measured the quality of sleep throughout the night.

The researchers then sequestered volunteers in a hotel, administered the cold virus via nasal drops and monitored them for a week, collecting daily mucus samples to see if the virus had taken hold.

They found that subjects who had slept less than six hours a night the week before were 4.2 times more likely to catch the cold compared to those who got more than seven hours of sleep, and those who slept less than five hours were 4.5 times more likely.

“It goes beyond feeling groggy or irritable,” Prather said. “Not getting sleep fundamentally affects your physical health.”

Sleep as a Public Health Issue

The study shows the risks of chronic sleep loss better than typical experiments in which researchers artificially deprive subjects of sleep, said Prather, because it is based on subjects’ normal sleep behavior. “This could be a typical week for someone during cold season,” he said.

The new data add yet another piece of evidence that sleep should be treated as a crucial pillar of public health, along with diet and exercise, the researchers said. But it’s still a challenge to convince people to get more sleep.

“In our busy culture, there’s still a fair amount of pride about not having to sleep and getting a lot of work done,” Prather said. “We need more studies like this to begin to drive home that sleep is a critical piece to our wellbeing.” (Via UC San Francisco, written by Lisa Marie Potter and Nicholas Weiler)