Read the story:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2149755/The-tiny-metal-heart-saved-life-toddler-ahead-transplant-operation.html
Wednesday, 31 July 2013
Read the story:
Read the story:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2149755/The-tiny-metal-heart-saved-life-toddler-ahead-transplant-operation.html
Title
Researchers have been able to see brain waves on EEGs for decades, yet no one knew exactly how these waves were created. A new computer model from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland may help explain how neurons work together to create these waves. The brain model, created with the help of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, simulates the activity of 12,000 neurons wired together in a single circuit. The model, published in the journal Neuron, shows that these brain waves emerge naturally from patterns of neuron spiking and recovery. The researchers found that the specific behavior of the various ion channels in the neurons were especially important in creating these waves. Although this is an important step to understanding brain function, researchers need to create large, more complex neural circuits to truly begin to understand neural activity.
Source: http://actu.epfl.ch/news/neural-simulations-hint-at-the-origin-of-brain-w-4/
Whether we're on a balance beam or a slippery patch of ice, we often have to correct abrupt changes in motion to...
Whether we're on a balance beam or a slippery patch of ice, we often have to correct abrupt changes in motion to prevent a fall. Scientists have long known that the vestibular system in our inner ears is crucial to this process, but in a new study in Current Biology, researchers at McGill University have identified a tiny patch of neurons that respond to these sudden changes in movement to keep us balanced and upright. These neurons are key in perceiving what scientists call sensory conflicts: when the information from what our brains are predicting will happen next and the other information coming in from our senses. These neurons, located in the cerebellum, may help explain not only why we're usually so good at catching ourselves before we fall, but also how to better understand, prevent, and even treat motion sickness.
Source: https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/node/18958
Study Reveals Biological Basis for Sensory Processing Disorders in Kids
Study Reveals Biological Basis for Sensory Processing Disorders in Kids
The image shows areas of the brain that can be affected by sensory processing disorders. Using an advanced form of MRI, researchers at UCSF have identified abnormalities in the brain structure of children with SPD primarily in the back of the brain
Source: http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2013/07/107316/breakthrough-study-reveals-biological-basis-sensory-processing-disorders-kidsi
Spider skin at 12,000 magnification
Spider skin at 12,000 magnification
You can clearly see a follicle, hairs, and brochosomes from a preyed-upon leafhopper (the yellow balls)
Bizarrely fascinating. Operating Room with class. University Hospital. Location: U.S.; Iowa.
Bizarrely fascinating. Operating Room with class. University Hospital. Location: U.S.; Iowa.
A complex set of muscles underlying the body wall of third-stage Drosophila larva
A complex set of muscles underlying the body wall of third-stage Drosophila larva
Cake depicting the layers of Jupiter!
Cake depicting the layers of Jupiter! The center (mudcake) is the theoretical rock/ice core, then comes the (almond butter) layer of liquid metallic hydrogen, and finally the (colored vanilla) liquid molecular hydrogen.
Photo credit: cake crumbs
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
How to Remove an Ingrown Toenail Procedure.
How to Remove an Ingrown Toenail Procedure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNnsGxy1SC0&feature=player_embedded#at=275
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNnsGxy1SC0&feature=player_embedded#at=275
Stargazer fish have their eyes situated on the tops of their heads and can bury themselves in the sediment with only...
Stargazer fish have their eyes situated on the tops of their heads and can bury themselves in the sediment with only their faces sticking out. Some species lure prey with a worm-shaped projection that comes out of their mouths. They are toxic and some can deliver a 50 volt shock!
Photo credit: Wolcott Henry/ National Geographic
East-coast US fern, Polypodium virginianum, showing a cluster of spore-filled sporangia and specialized protective...
East-coast US fern, Polypodium virginianum, showing a cluster of spore-filled sporangia and specialized protective hairs called paraphyses.
Photo credit: Dr. Igor Siwanowicz
Monday, 29 July 2013
Carbon fixation is when carbon dioxide is converted to organic compounds.
Carbon fixation is when carbon dioxide is converted to organic compounds. Plants do a lot of the carbon fixation on Earth, by taking carbon dioxide from the air. As anyone who’s cared for plants knows, they also need some water and some light. You might also know that they give off oxygen.
They do this by photosynthesis. They’re basically taking the C out of CO2 and then giving off O2. This carbon (the C) gets converted to carbohydrates, which are basically sugars.
EMBRYO FIN WHALE
EMBRYO FIN WHALE
Preserved from the days of the Antarctic whaling. The mother whale was landed at South Georgia.
Fin whales are the second largest whales in the world next to the blue whale. They can grow up to 25 meters long. This embryo is only about 4 cm long.
Between the 1900s and the 1960s, thousands and thousands of whales were fished out the waters surrounding Antarctica.
Source: http://photos.shetland-museum.org.uk/index.php?a=indexes&s=item&key=IYToxOntpOjA7czoxNToiV2hhbGVzL2RvbHBoaW5zIjt9&pg=73
Title
Researchers have created what they call "epilepsy in a dish," creating neuronal stem cells from a skin biopsy. Using these stem cells, researchers at the University of Michigan may have uncovered what causes seizures in a rare, inherited disorder known as Dravet syndrome. In work published in Annals of Neurology, the researchers identified a new genetic mutation in people with the syndrome, and found that this mutation dramatically decreases the number of sodium channels in a person's brain. This served to make the neurons hyper excitable, which researchers believe contributes to the seizures. Besides providing a new way to study the syndrome in cells from young people who actually have the illness, the technique also provides better ways of testing medications.
Source: http://www.uofmhealth.org/news/archive/201307/epilepsy-dish-stem-cell-research-reveals-clues-diseases
The Method of Plastination
The Method of Plastination
Plastination is a relatively simple process designed to preserve the body for educational and instructional purposes. Plastination, like many revolutionary inventions, is simple in concept:
1. Embalming and Anatomical Dissection
The first step of the process involves halting decay by pumping formalin into the body through the arteries. Formalin kills all bacteria and chemically stops the decay of tissue. Using dissection tools, the skin, fatty and connective tissues are removed in order to prepare the individual anatomical structures.
2. Removal of Body Fat and Water
The body water and soluble fats are dissolved from the body by placing it into a solvent bath (e.g., an acetone bath).
3. Forced Impregnation.
During forced impregnation a reactive polymer, e.g., silicone rubber, replaces the acetone. To achieve this, the specimen is immersed in a polymer solution and placed in vacuum chamber. The vacuum removes the acetone from the specimen and helps the polymer to penetrate every last cell.
4. Positioning
After vacuum impregnation, the body is positioned as desired. Every single anatomical structure is properly aligned and fixed with the help of wires, needles, clamps, and foam blocks.
5. Curing (Hardening)
In the final step, the specimen is hardened. Depending on the polymer used, this is done with gas, light, or heat. Dissection and Plastination of an entire body requires about 1,500 working hours and normally takes about one year to complete.
Know more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastination
The hippocampus is an area within the brain crucial for learning and memory, and it is one of the very few sites...
The hippocampus is an area within the brain crucial for learning and memory, and it is one of the very few sites where new neurons grow in adulthood. In this slice of a hippocampus, stem cells (green) give rise to new neuronal cells (red). Understanding how the brain produces new neurons could help in treatments for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, to name just a couple.
Image credit: Grigori Enikolopov
Sea butterflies also known as pteropods are related to snails and use a muscular foot to swim through the ocean.
Sea butterflies also known as pteropods are related to snails and use a muscular foot to swim through the ocean.
Know more: http://eol.org/pages/453422/details
This spectacular, vertigo inducing, false-color image from NASA’s Cassini mission highlights the storms at Saturn’s...
This spectacular, vertigo inducing, false-color image from NASA’s Cassini mission highlights the storms at Saturn’s north pole. The angry eye of a hurricane-like storm appears dark red while the fast-moving hexagonal jet stream framing it is a yellowish green. Low-lying clouds circling inside the hexagonal feature appear as muted orange color. A second, smaller vortex pops out in teal at the lower right of the image. The rings of Saturn appear in vivid blue at the top right.
Picture of a chick embryo(6x)
Picture of a chick embryo(6x)
Technique used for this image: Stereomicroscopy
Photo credit: Tomas Pais de Azevedo
The wattle cup caterpillar (Calcarifera ordinata).
The wattle cup caterpillar (Calcarifera ordinata).
These brightly colored caterpillars are common throughout northern Australia. They have four large spikes protruding from them, each of which carries a painful sting.
A bright field, multi-focus stack image of a sorus of Asplenium trichomanes (maidenhair spleenwort), a small fern.
A bright field, multi-focus stack image of a sorus of Asplenium trichomanes (maidenhair spleenwort), a small fern. A sorus is a cluster of sporangia, which produce and contain spores
Photo credit: Gerd Guenther
Princeton University researchers have developed enhanced versions of neuronal calcium receptors that give them an...
Princeton University researchers have developed enhanced versions of neuronal calcium receptors that give them an unparalleled look at how cells in the brain communicate. In a new study in Nature Communications, the researchers worked to improve the function of the existing green fluorescent protein/calmodulin protein (GCaMP) sensors, which researchers can inject into the bloodstream and let travel to the brain. When they are activated by calcium activity, they glow green. The Princeton scientists tweaked the GCaMP sensors in their latest work, to let them keep up with the rapid pace of neuronal activity. This will let scientists better study the many tangled networks of neural activity in the brain.
Source: http://blogs.princeton.edu/research/2013/07/25/a-faster-vessel-for-charting-the-brain-nature-communications/
Sunday, 28 July 2013
Photo of Alitta virens.
Photo of Alitta virens. Don’t let the pretty colors fool you, these sandworms are plenty scary. They can get quite big (sometimes exceeding four feet) and they occasionally bite humans. They just might be the nastiest thing in pastel since James Spader in an 80’s movie.
More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alitta_virens
Monoclonal antibody effective against norovirus
Monoclonal antibody effective against norovirus
Researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) provide the first proof of concept data showing that a monoclonal antibody can neutralize human norovirus. This research, which could one day lead to effective therapies against the virus, was published online ahead of print in the Journal of Virology.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/asfm-mae072413.php
Image: representation of monoclonal antibodies binding to antigens on a cell surface.
This image shows a thin section of a piece of the Allende meteorite that fell to the ground in Mexico on February 8,...
This image shows a thin section of a piece of the Allende meteorite that fell to the ground in Mexico on February 8, 1969. The photo was taken through a light microscope using cross-polarized illumination. Allende is a carbonaceous chondrite meteorite notable for its calcium-aluminium-rich inclusions (CAI). It’s one of the oldest objects in the Solar system. This kind of meteorite is older than chrondules and even older than the Earth itself.
Source: http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2013/07/thin-section-of-allende-meteorite.html
Numerology is bogus, but art based on numbers has a beautiful random quality.
Numerology is bogus, but art based on numbers has a beautiful random quality.
Check out the work of Christian Ilies Vasile and Martin Kryzwinski here:
http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/pi/art/
Saturday, 27 July 2013
Meniscectomy is the surgical removal of all or part of a torn meniscus.
Meniscectomy is the surgical removal of all or part of a torn meniscus. A meniscus tear is a common knee joint injury.
If you have a small tear at the outer edge of the meniscus ( red zone), you may want to try home treatment. These tears often heal with rest.
If you have a moderate to large tear at the outer edge of the meniscus (red zone), you may want to think about surgery. These kinds of tears tend to heal well after surgery.
If you have a tear that spreads from the red zone into the inner two-thirds of the meniscus ( white zone), your decision is harder. Surgery for these kinds of tears may not work.
If you have a tear in the white zone of the meniscus, surgery usually isn't done, because the meniscus may not heal. But surgery may be done if torn pieces of meniscus are causing pain and swelling.
How Well It Works
Removing the whole meniscus generally reduces some symptoms. But losing the meniscus reduces the cushioning and stability of the joint. Most people, especially if they are young or active, are not satisfied with a total meniscectomy. This is why surgeons try to remove as little of the meniscus as possible.
Studies of partial meniscectomy have shown that 78% to 88% of people have good results from partial meniscectomy. This means that 78 to 88 people out of 100 people who have this surgery have decreased symptoms and are able to return to most or all of their activities.
Risks
Meniscectomy is generally well tolerated and does not usually cause complications. But there is a risk of damaging the nerves during surgery.
There is a direct relationship between the amount of meniscus tissue that is surgically removed and the load distribution across the knee. If more tissue is removed, the knee is less able to sustain the load of walking, running, or other activities. With uneven load distribution, degeneration of the knee joint may happen at a faster pace than it would with an intact meniscus.
What to think about
Surgical repair is generally favored over a partial or total meniscectomy. If the meniscus can be repaired successfully, it reduces the risk of knee joint degeneration that may occur with removal of all or part of the meniscus.
One study reports that the development of arthritis in the knee after meniscectomy may be influenced by heredity and environmental factors. This finding is significant, because surgical removal of meniscal tissue has been considered the cause of osteoarthritis in the knee. If this study's findings are correct, surgery may be a factor, but not the only factor, in eventual osteoarthritis in knees
Know more: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3438273/
Love this photo of Fabien Cousteau on the shoulders of his famous ocean-exploring grandfather, Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
Love this photo of Fabien Cousteau on the shoulders of his famous ocean-exploring grandfather, Jacques-Yves Cousteau.