Gene repair improves memory and seizures in adult autism model

Tom Patriot

A new study challenges the presumption that people born with developmental brain disorders such as severe autism will benefit from medical interventions only if treated during a narrow window in infancy or early childhood. Writing in the journal eLife, an open-access scientific journal, the Rumbaugh lab at Scripps Research in Florida reports improvement in measures of seizure and memory in adult mouse models of a genetic cause of autism, called SYNGAP1 disorder. Children born with only one working copy of the SYNGAP1 gene don’t make enough of the critical SynGAP protein.…

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Ford Stock Rises After Outperforming Expected Earnings, While Tesla Falls

Tom Patriot

Ford Motor Co., the oldest U.S. automaker, surged today after beating expectations with first quarter earnings while Tesla, one of the youngest, continued to slide after reporting dismal results two days ago. Ford was up 10.74 percent, while Tesla fell 5.16 percent–the biggest gain and loss on the Entrepreneur Index™ today. The move in the two companies’ stock prices now makes Ford more valuable than Tesla for the first time since April 2017. The broader stock market was up today on the strength of the U.S. economy. Despite slower global economic growth and…

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Jennifer Lopez Shows Off Her Bare Butt in New Video

Tom Patriot

Jennifer Lopez is showing off her iconic derrière in her new music video! The multi-hyphenate star premiered her latest music video for her new single “Medicine” on Sunday on NBC’s World of Dance. The video marked the first time Lopez worked with director Jora Frantzis. Lopez, who got engaged to fiancé Alex Rodriguez on March 9, acts as the ring leader of a white monochromatic carnival featuring fortune tellers, a 50-foot cake, complete with a glamorous blinged-out Zuhair Murad jumpsuit and white cowboy hat and boots. “It’s a very sassy song, very kind of woman empowerment,” Lopez described…

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Brain regions linked to memory and emotion help humans navigate smell

Tom Patriot

Species like dogs and rodents use their sense of smell to navigate toward desirable items and places and away from those they should avoid. But do humans have the same capabilities? It’s a question University of Pennsylvania neurobiologist Jay Gottfried has been trying to answer, and by mixing pine and banana scents to create a unique “smellscape,” he was able to decipher how the human brain uses such odor information to move through particular two-dimensional environments. “Each of our five senses plays a unique role, but smell seems to be…

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This overlooked group of stocks can give you better returns with less risk over time

Tom Patriot

Mid-cap stocks fly under the radar, wedged between fast-growing small-caps and established large-caps. But their long-term performance as an asset class has been good enough that you should think about diversifying your investment portfolio to include them. Financial media headlines are rightly fixated on the large-cap companies that drive the stock market. After all, the largest exchange traded fund (ETF) — the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, +0.03%  — has $279 billion in assets and there are other giant ETFs and index mutual funds that track the S&P 500 SPX, +0.04% So even with the…

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