In a quest for better understanding the shaping mechanism of planetary nebulae (PNs) I published many papers in the past (e.g., Soker 2004a) all of which came to the same conclusion: For the formation of non-spherical PNs a companion is required, wether stellar or substellar. This results from the basic assumption that angular momentum is a conserved physics quantity. As trivial as this may sou...

The apelin receptor APJ belongs to the family of seventransmembrane domain receptors and is coupled to inhibitory G-proteins [1,2]. Apelin is synthesized as a 77 amino acid pre-pro-peptide that can be cleaved into fragments of different sizes that activate APJ [1,2]. Apelin peptides have been shown to affect many biological functions in mammals including the neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and ...

This month's installment of Generally Physiological considers a channel in skeletal muscle and a cardiac G pro-tein–coupled receptor (GPCR) that are sensitive to mechanical stress as well as their respective ligands, and how the geometry of subcellular domains influences GPCR dynamics. Stretching the boundaries of nAChR gating Although ion channels are often broadly classified as " voltage-gate...

Context. The plateau in the abundance of 7Li in metal-poor stars was initially interpreted as an observational indicator of the primordial lithium abundance. However, this observational value is in disagreement with that deduced from calculations of Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), when using the Wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe (WMAP) baryon density measurements. One of the most important f...