Enlightening Self-interest

Enlightening the adrenal gland.

The secretion of glucocorticoid hormones is tightly regulated by the circadian clock and by negative humoral feedback loops, both acting on the hypothalamic-pituitary gland-adrenal axis. However, a new study Ishida et al., 2005 [this issue of Cell Metabolism) shows that light can influence the adrenal's glucocorticoid output by a more direct pathway.

An Enlightening Reactor

I n recent years, the reaction vessel by which chemists perform organic reactions has undergone major changes. No longer limited to round-bottom flasks, we can perform experiments in microwave ovens, flow reactors, and 96-well plates. Each of these technologies has enabled breakthroughs in organic synthesis not easily achieved using conventional flasks. In the rapid development of photoredox te...

Enlightening and flexing memories

by Professor Stefan Hecht, who is a member of IRIS Adlershof, in collaboration with the University of Strasbourg & CNRS (France) and the University of Nova Gorica (Slovenia), have shown that a carefully chosen blend of a small photoswitchable molecule and a semiconducting polymer can be used to fabricate high-performance memory devices that can be written and erased by light. Such multilevel (8...

Enlightening the Postsynaptic Density

1974; Landis et al., 1974; Peters et al., 1991). Related structures are also found at the neuromuscular junction The postsynaptic density (PSD) is a specialization of the (Sanes, 1997). Major morphological variants of type 1 cytoskeleton at the synaptic junction. It lies adjacent to synapses include axodendritic synaptic junctions formed the cytoplasmic face of the postsynaptic membrane, in on ...

An Enlightening Counterexample