Share this post ✔️ The A&P Professor Science & Education Updates - Issue #42theapprofessor.substack.comCopy linkFacebookEmailNoteOther ✔️ The A&P Professor Science & Education Updates - Issue #42Kevin PattonJul 23, 2021Share this post ✔️ The A&P Professor Science & Education Updates - Issue #42theapprofessor.substack.comCopy linkFacebookEmailNoteOtherShareLife ScienceSummary: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant effect on our perceptions of facemask wearers. Those who wore facemasks were considered healthier and more attractive than those without masks, a new study reports.A coronavirus infection can mow down the forests of hairlike cilia that coat our airways, destroying a crucial barrier to keeping the virus from lodging deep in the lungs.Normally, those cilia move in synchronized waves to push mucus out of the airway and into the throat. To protect the lungs, objects that don’t belong — including viral invaders like the coronavirus — get stuck in mucus, which is then swallowed (SN: 9/15/20). But the coronavirus throws that system out of whack. When it infects respiratory tract cells, the virus appears to clear tracts of cilia, and without the hairlike structures, the cells stop moving mucus, researchers report July 16 in Nature Communications.Barriers around the brain and spinal cord of the central nervous system (CNS) protect neuronal cells from the changeable milieu of the bloodstream by controlling movement of molecules and cells between the blood and the CNS. These barriers also ensure that the CNS can be kept under surveillance by certain immune cells, but restrict the access of blood-derived immune cells and molecules to specific compartments at the border of the CNS1.Writing in Science, Cugurra et al.2 and Brioschi et al.3 report that the dura mater, a tissue layer around the outermost barrier of the CNS, sources a private immune protection from nearby bone marrow.A filmmaker devises a few experiments to help his family experience his disability — and show how a little imagination can make us all more empathetic.Summary: Calcium directs blood flow in the brain by controlling blood vessel contractions, a new study reveals. Unlike the rest of the body, there is not enough real estate in the brain for stored energy.Summary: Reducing sensitivity to physical pain resulted in a reduction of pain empathy toward others, a study found. The results suggest a possible neurobiological link between pain and empathy.In every dividing cell, a time comes when the two copies of the genome need to be separated. The aptly named enzyme separase springs into action and gets the job done.Unleashing separase at any other time in the life of a cell would be dangerous, so the enzyme is kept well guarded. Human separase is held in check by not one but three mutually exclusive inhibitors.Writing in Nature, Yu et al.1 report structures of human separase in complex with two of these inhibitors. The structures show commonalities but also striking differences. One of the inhibitors snakes along separase to embed itself in the enzyme’s active site. The other forces separase to inhibit itself; at the same time, this inhibitor is itself inhibited by separase in an entangled embrace.Teaching & LearningPeter A’Hearn is a “Science Education Troubadour.” He is currently president-elect of the California Association of Science Educators. He has taught high school biology, physical science, health, and Earth science.Technology-enhanced learning (TEL) is now a common mode of educational delivery within medical education. Despite this upsurge, there remains a paucity in comprehensive evaluation of TEL efficacy.TAPP News & NotesThe next step in The A&P Professor experience, this is a private community of enthusiastic teaching faculty free of the distractions of email threads, ads, and social media. Share experiences. Learn from each other. Find the support you need!PreviousNext