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Scientists have created an artificial material that mimics the tough, stretchy properties of muscle.

The material could find a potential application as a "scaffold" to aid muscle regeneration.

Researchers engineered a polymer to reproduce the properties of titin – a protein which largely determines the elastic properties of muscle.

The work, by a US-Canadian team of researchers, is reported in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

"A hallmark of titin-like proteins is that they unfold under a stretching force to dissipate energy and prevent damage to tissues by over-stretching," said co-author John Gosline from the University of British Columbia in Canada.

"We’ve been able to replicate one of the more unique characteristics exhibited by muscle tissues, but not all of them."

Scientists cross-linked the polymers to form a solid, rubber-like material.

The authors suggest that the properties of this material could even be fine-tuned to resemble specific types of muscle by adjusting the compositions of the proteins.

Initially, the discovery could assist in the healing of tissue tears, acting as a tough stretchy scaffold that allows new tissue to grow across the wound.

But scientists will have to test whether the material is compatibile with human tissue.

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Scientists have shown they can change people’s moral judgements by disrupting a specific area of the brain with magnetic pulses.

They identified a region of the brain just above and behind the right ear which appears to control morality.

And by using magnetic pulses to block cell activity they impaired volunteers’ notion of right and wrong.

The small Massachusetts Institute of Technology study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Lead researcher Dr Liane Young said: "You think of morality as being a really high-level behaviour.

"To be able to apply a magnetic field to a specific brain region and change people’s moral judgments is really astonishing."

The key area of the brain is a knot of nerve cells known as the right temporo-parietal junction (RTPJ).

The researchers subjected 20 volunteers to a number of tests designed to assess their notions of right and wrong.

In one scenario participants were asked how acceptable it was for a man to let his girlfriend walk across a bridge he knew to be unsafe.

After receiving a 500 millisecond magnetic pulse to the scalp, the volunteers delivered verdicts based on outcome rather than moral principle.

If the girlfriend made it across the bridge safely, her boyfriend was not seen as having done anything wrong.

In effect, they were unable to make moral judgments that require an understanding of other people’s intentions.

Previous work has shown the RTPJ to be highly active when people think about the thoughts and beliefs of others.

Electric currents

The MIT team pinpointed the region in volunteers using a sophisticated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scan.

They then targeted the area using a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to create weak electric currents that temporarily stop brain cells working normally.

In one test, volunteers were exposed to TMS for 25 minutes before reading stories involving morally questionable characters, and being asked to judge their actions.

In a second experiment, volunteers were subjected to a much shorter 500 millisecond TMS burst while being asked to make a moral judgement.

In both cases, the researchers found that when the RTPJ was disrupted volunteers were more likely to judge actions solely on the basis of whether they caused harm – not whether they were morally wrong in themselves.

Morally dubious acts with a "happy" ending were often deemed acceptable.

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, a brain expert at University College London, said the findings were insightful.

"The study suggests that this region – the RTPJ – is necessary for moral reasoning.

"What is interesting is that this is a region that is very late developing – into adolescence and beyond right into the 20s.

"The next step would be to look at how or whether moral development changes through childhood into adulthood."

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Edinburgh Scientists probing a rare type of autism believe the "biological mechanism" behind the disorder may be simpler than was previously thought.

Rett’s syndrome leaves sufferers with serious speech and mobility problems. Mainly found in girls it affects more than 1,000 children in the UK.

Symptoms develop in children from the age of one.

Lab work suggests a faulty protein, which causes the condition to interact with all the genes in brain cells.

Until now experts believed it only affected a handful of genes.

Debilitating disorder

The discovery suggests the impact of the faulty gene – MeCP2 – may be similar in different types of brain cell.

Professor Adrian Bird, of Edinburgh University who led the study, said: "This debilitating disorder is caused by a protein that is much more abundant in brain cells than we had realised and can therefore interact with the entire human genome, rather than with a few selected genes.

"It may be that, in Rett patients, many brain cells share a generic defect – which would mean this disease is less complicated than we feared. More work is needed to investigate this possibility."

The study, funded by the Wellcome Trust, was published in the journal Molecular Cell.

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HEALTH CHECK
By Dave Lee
BBC World Service

As anyone who has unwittingly drifted off at their desk will know – tiredness can really creep up on you when you least need it.

But a new study is offering some good news: it claims to prove that we can bank sleep – and store it up in advance of a tiring event.

Researchers in the US invited a group of volunteers to adjust their sleep patterns so the effect could be monitored.

For a week, one half of the group were allowed extra sleep, while the others were told to keep their sleeping patterns the same.

Then, the following week, they were all sleep-deprived.

"After this week of either extended or habitual sleep per night, all the volunteers came to the lab and they were given three hours of sleep, per night, for a week," explained Tracy Rupp from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

They were then given tasks of varying complication, and tests showed that those who had banked the sleep were "more resilient during the sleep restriction".

"They showed less performance deterioration with regards to reaction time and alertness than the group that had been given the habitual prior sleep," said Ms Rupp.

The tests even showed that a week after the experiment the pre-stored sleepers were recovering better from their sleep deprivation than the habitual sleepers.

"What we’re basically saying is if you fill up your reserves and pay back your sleep debt ahead of time, you’re better equipped to deal with the sleep loss challenge."

Combat sleep

For business people, the research suggests an end to the end-of-the-day slump. But for the military, it could be a life saver.

"Napping has been shown to be very effective, at least improving performance in the short term"

Tracy Rupp

The researchers say that after some more testing the theory could be worked into pre-tour routines for the forces.

"Hopefully the operational planning could take this information into account and give soldiers additional sleep prior to a long term mission," says Ms Rupp.

The next step of research, they say, is to find out exactly why the extra sleep can be banked.

"We’d like to know what’s going on psychologically in the brain.

"Next steps will be to do this sort of study but using brain imaging to see exactly what’s going on in the brain."

Nap time

Unfortunately, for now at least, the research team is unable to determine quite how much time you need to bank for maximum effect.

"My hunch would be that it’s very individualised.

HEALTH CHECK

• Health Checkis the weekly health programme broadcast from theBBC World Service
• It is broadcast on Monday at 1032GMT and repeated at 1532GMT, 2032GMT and on Tuesday at 0132GMT
• It is also available as apodcast

"Further research does need to be done to determine exactly how many nights are necessary."

And, as anyone who has tried to get an early night before a big day will know, it’s one thing being in bed – it’s another thing actually nodding off.

"A lot of our volunteers came into the lab and, knowing they had to go to bed at 9pm, were concerned that they would not be able to fall asleep."

"One way you might be able to capitalize and get some extra sleep is napping.

"Although this study didn’t use napping, it has been shown to be very effective, at least improving performance in the short term."

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