ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

This series of harmonic generation microscopy images shows the skin cells of a 24-year-old subject at increasing depths, ranging from the outermost layer of skin (a) to approximately 300 millionths of a meter deep (f). The magenta areas, generated from third harmonics, show skin cells and their nuclei. The green areas, generated from second harmonics, show fibers made of the protein collagen. Credit: Biomedical Optics Express Wrinkles, dryness, and a translucent and fragile appearance are hallmarks of old skin, caused by the natural aging of skin cells. But while most of us can recognize the signs of lost youth when we peer into the mirror each morning, scientists do not have a standardized way to measure the extent of age damage in skin. Now a group of Taiwanese researchers has used a specialized microscope to peer harmlessly beneath the skin surface to measure natural age-related changes in the sizes of skin cells. The results, which are published in the Optical Society's (OSA

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, in collaboration with colleagues in Germany and the Netherlands, have identified a previously unknown group of nerve cells in the brain. The nerve cells regulate cardiovascular functions such as heart rhythm and blood pressure. It is hoped that the discovery, which is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, will be significant in the long term in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases in humans. The scientists have managed to identify in mice a previously totally unknown group of nerve cells in the brain. These nerve cells, also known as 'neurons', develop in the brain with the aid of thyroid hormone, which is produced in the thyroid gland. Patients in whom the function of the thyroid gland is disturbed and who therefore produce too much or too little thyroid hormone, thus risk developing problems with these nerve cells. This in turn has an effect on the function of the heart, leading to cardiovascular disease. It i

Dec. 20, 2012  — Following up on earlier theoretical predictions, MIT researchers have now demonstrated experimentally the existence of a fundamentally new kind of magnetic behavior, adding to the two previously known states of magnetism. Ferromagnetism -- the simple magnetism of a bar magnet or compass needle -- has been known for centuries. In a second type of magnetism, antiferromagnetism, the magnetic fields of the ions within a metal or alloy cancel each other out. In both cases, the materials become magnetic only when cooled below a certain critical temperature. The prediction and discovery of antiferromagnetism -- the basis for the read heads in today's computer hard disks -- won Nobel Prizes in physics for Louis Neel in 1970 and for MIT professor emeritus Clifford Shull in 1994. "We're showing that there is a third fundamental state for magnetism," says MIT professor of physics Young Lee. The experimental work showing the existence of this new stat

By Ben West The  Pakistani Taliban  continue to undermine Pakistan's government and military establishment, and in doing so, they continue to raise questions over the security of the country's nuclear arsenal. On Dec. 15, 10 militants armed with suicide vests and grenades attacked Peshawar Air Force Base, the site of a third major operation by the Pakistani Taliban since May 2011. Tactically, the attack was relatively unsuccessful -- all the militants were killed, and the perimeter of the air base was not breached -- but the Pakistani Taliban nonetheless achieved their objective.  The attack began the night of Dec. 15 with a volley of three to five mortar shells. As the shells were fired, militants detonated a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device near the perimeter wall of the air base. Reports indicate that all five militants inside the vehicle were killed. The other five militants engaged security forces in a nearby residential area and eventually were driven back

When probing the deepest reaches of the Cosmos or magnifying our understanding of the quantum world, a whole host of mysteries present themselves. This is to be expected when pushing our knowledge of the Universe to the limit. But what if a well-known -- and apparently constant -- characteristic of matter starts behaving mysteriously? This is exactly what has been noticed in recent years; the decay rates of radioactive elements are  changing . This is especially mysterious as we are talking about elements with "constant" decay rates -- these values aren't supposed to change . School textbooks teach us this from an early age. WATCH VIDEO: A solar eruption sends a wave of plasma hurtling towards Earth on Aug. 1, 2010. The event was captured by NASA satellites. This is the conclusion that  researchers from Stanford and Purdue University have arrived at , but the only explanation they have is even weirder than the phenomenon itself: The sun might be emitting a previ

By Robert D. Kaplan Chief Geopolitical Analyst According to the elite newspapers and journals of opinion, the future of foreign affairs mainly rests on ideas: the moral impetus for humanitarian intervention, the various theories governing exchange rates and debt rebalancing necessary to fix Europe, the rise of cosmopolitanism alongside the stubborn vibrancy of nationalism in East Asia and so on. In other words, the world of the future can be engineered and defined based on doctoral theses. And to a certain extent this may be true. As the 20th century showed us, ideologies -- whether communism, fascism or humanism -- matter and matter greatly. But there is another truth: The reality of large, impersonal forces like geography and the environment that also help to determine the future of human events. Africa has historically been poor largely because of few good natural harbors and few navigable rivers from the interior to the coast. Russia is paranoid because its land mass is expose

White House says president "actively supportive" of reinstating ban on assault weapons in aftermath of school massacre. Americas Obama backs US assault weapons ban White House says president "actively supportive" of reinstating ban on assault weapons in aftermath of school massacre. Last Modified: 18 Dec 2012 21:38 The White House has said that President Barack Obama is "actively supportive" of efforts in the US Congress to reinstate an assault weapons ban. White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Tuesday that Obama would also support legislation to close the gun show "loophole", which allows people to buy guns from private dealers without background checks. The president has pledged to address gun violence in the coming weeks following Friday's deadly shooting at a Connecticut elementary school that killed 26 people, including 20 children and six adults. Obama had vowed to use "whatever po

Eleven prisoners and six guards killed during attempted prison break in norther city of Gomez Palacio. Eleven prisoners and six guards have been killed in armed clashes at a prison in northern Mexico that erupted when inmates attempted a prison break. The shootout broke out on Tuesday as wardens were "thwarting the inmates' attempted prison break" in the city of Gomez Palacio, the public security office in Durango state said in a statement. Wardens rang the alarm bells in the facility as the inmates shot at guard towers as they attempted to escape through a back wall and tunnel, and guards fired back to contain the revolt, according to the statement which cited by the El Universal and Milenio newspapers. Troops eventually put a stop to the attempt and regained control of the facility. Mass jailbreaks have become a recurrent problem in Mexico. In September, 131 prisoners escaped through the front door of a prison in Piedras Negras, a city on the US border. In th