Caffeinated Honeybees and Tailor-made Spider Webs

• Honeybees benefit from a shot of caffeine, just as humans. Caffeine has been shown to improve focus and alertness, and may even enhance memory in people. Researchers have now found a similar effect in honeybees. An experiment showed that bees are three times as likely to remember a learned floral scent laced with a tiny amount of caffeine than a scent laced with a tiny amount of sucrose. The amount of caffeine used was equivalent to that naturally found in nectar of Coffea and Citrus flowers. Its presence and its memory-enhancing effect ensure that honeybees seek out the flowers for their own nourishment and also help the plant reproduce by pollinating it. (Science, Mar. 8, 2013)

• There is increasing evidence that moderate drinking of green tea can enhance overall health and brain function, especially among older people. In Japan, scientists asked 14,000 adults, aged 65 or older about their green tea consumption. Three years later the health of the participants was checked. Only seven percent of those who drank five or more cups of green tea per day developed functional disability, but 13 percent of those who drank less than one cup a day encountered health problems. The benefit is linked to plant substances in the tea called polyphenols, which are powerful antioxidants capable of inhibiting the accumulation of free radicals (a normal byproduct of cellular metabolism). Previous research showed an association between green tea consumption and lower rates of cancer, protection against brain aging and stroke, improved memory, and other benefits. (Amer. Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Mar., 2012; Mind, Mood, & Memory, Mass. General Hospital, June, 2012)

• Although scientists know a great deal about the manifestations of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), they do not know “why.” A key gene in the development of AD is called the Amyloid Precursor (AP) gene, which codes for amyloid precursor protein (APP) that becomes part of the surface membrane of nerve cells in the brain. The protein APP is acted on by enzymes and cleaved into several fragments, at least one of which ordinarily functions to decrease the adhesion between nerve cells. Something goes awry during the processing of APP, and some of the fragments are released outside nerve cells and begin to clump together instead of being swept harmlessly away. These form insoluble masses called amyloid plaques, which are toxic to brain cells and cause them to fall apart. As more plaques accumulate, affected parts of the brain begin to shut down and mental functions gradually diminish. The above summarizes years of research on AD, but the quest goes on for why it occurs. (Journal of Toxicology, Vol. 2012, accepted for publication Oct. 26, 2011; ghr.nlm.nih.gove/gene/APP; Current Opinion in Neurobiology, vol. 14, #5, Oct., 2004)

• Stronger than steel and the Kevlar used in bulletproof vests, the “silk” of spider webs is produced in strands that vary in strength or flexibility depending on the span of the overall web and on weather conditions. In high humidity, webs are designed to stiffen to resist raindrops. Somehow a spider’s pinhead-size brain figures out how to tailor-make a web to meet existing conditions. (Nature Materials, Jan. 27, 2013; ScienceDaily, Feb. 6, 2013)