Health & Fitness

New research found confined and isolating environments changed the way people smelled and responded emotionally to certain food aromas. The team in this study compared 44 people's emotional responses and perception of eight food aromas in two environmental scenarios: sitting in reclined chairs that mimic astronauts' posture in microgravity; and then in the confined setting of the International Space Station (ISS), which was simulated for participants with virtual reality goggles. The research builds on previous work by the team and aims to help explain why astronauts report meals taste different in space and struggle to eat their normal nutritional intake over long missions, which has been reported in the news recently.

from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/RrDu0x8

When pain signals are passed along the nervous system, proteins called calcium channels play a key role. Researchers have now pinpointed the exact location of a specific calcium channel fine-tuning the strength of pain signals. This knowledge can be used to develop drugs for chronic pain that are more effective and have fewer side effects.

from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/JKOMykx

Researchers have used machine learning and supercomputer simulations to investigate how tiny gold nanoparticles bind to blood proteins. The studies discovered that favorable nanoparticle-protein interactions can be predicted from machine learning models that are trained from atom-scale molecular dynamics simulations. The new methodology opens ways to simulate efficacy of gold nanoparticles as targeted drug delivery systems in precision nanomedicine.

from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/L85vXWe