wired posts for the day

Condé Nast has an agenda. I'm going to post the last day's headlines as a regular feature for reference and discussion to bring their liminal messages to the forefront.

male epigenetic contributions

PNAS | Intergenerational transmission of the positive effects of physical exercise on brain and cognition 

Physical exercise is well known for its positive effects on general health (specifically, on brain function and health), and some mediating mechanisms are also known. A few reports have addressed intergenerational inheritance of some of these positive effects from exercised mothers or fathers to the progeny, but with scarce results in cognition. We report here the inheritance of moderate exercise-induced paternal traits in offspring’s cognition, neurogenesis, and enhanced mitochondrial activity. These changes were accompanied by specific gene expression changes, including gene sets regulated by microRNAs, as potential mediating mechanisms. We have also demonstrated a direct transmission of the exercise-induced effects through the fathers’ sperm, thus showing that paternal physical activity is a direct factor driving offspring’s brain physiology and cognitive behavior.

Foreign invasion proceeding apace

azcentral | Border Patrol is now releasing migrant families directly in Tucson

TUCSON — Border Patrol officials have begun releasing migrant families in Tucson because they lack the space to detain them and immigration officials are unable to take them into custody.

The practice has been going on for about a month, according to the Border Patrol's Tucson sector, which covers most of Arizona's border with Mexico.

It was a central topic of a meeting Border Patrol officials in Tucson held Friday with local law-enforcement, elected and community leaders. 

A slow weekend at Wired

What's interesting, what's not, and why?

Inflammation increases impulsivity

Research Digest | Could Your Immune System Be Making You Impulsive?

You can have £10 today or £12 next week. Which do you go for? 

Being able to forego a reward now in favour of gaining something better later is known to be important in determining all kinds of desirable outcomes in life, including greater educational attainment, social functioning and health. 

However, choosing to delay gratification won’t always be the best option. If you’re in desperate circumstances – you badly need money to buy food, for example – taking the £10 today could be sensible. But this isn’t necessarily an entirely conscious judgment – there may be biological systems that automatically shift your decision-making priorities according to what is most likely to enhance your survival. A new open-access study published in Scientific Reports provides evidence that having raised levels of inflammation in your body, which is generally caused by the immune system’s response to infection or injury, can skew your judgment to focus more on present rewards, and on instant gratification. If further research backs this up, there could be wide-ranging implications not only for understanding why some people are more impulsive than others, but even for treating substance abuse. 

The last day in Wired posts

Condé Nast has an agenda. I'm going to post the last day's headlines as a regular feature for reference and discussion to bring their liminal messages to the forefront.