Why unprotected eclipse gazing will leave you seeing stars
Just a single, unguarded glance at a solar eclipse can result in a lifetime of vision loss, eye health experts warn.
Just a single, unguarded glance at a solar eclipse can result in a lifetime of vision loss, eye health experts warn.
Space Exploration
Apr 7, 2024
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Soft tissue preservation in the geological record is relatively rare, and except where deliberate intervention halts the process of decay (like embalming or freezing), the survival of entire organs is particularly unusual. ...
Archaeology
Mar 19, 2024
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44
Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have unveiled unprecedentedly detailed images of brain cancer tissue through the use of a new microscopy technology called ...
Bio & Medicine
Jan 31, 2024
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Electrical deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a well-established method for treating disordered movement in Parkinson's disease. However, implanting electrodes in a person's brain is an invasive and imprecise way to stimulate ...
Bio & Medicine
Jan 18, 2024
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A recent study by European scientists shows that highly sensitive sensors based on color centers in a diamond can be used to record electrical activity from neurons in living brain tissue. The work is published in the journal ...
Quantum Physics
Dec 8, 2023
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46
A recent study published in Science Advances sheds new light on the enigmatic early evolution of snakes by examining an unexpected source: their brains. The results emphasize the significance of studying both the soft parts ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 27, 2023
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128
Proteins are subject to post-translational chemical modifications that result in functional diversity. Methylation is one such modification that is generally believed to occur on lysine and arginine residues. Recently, this ...
Biochemistry
Sep 27, 2023
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β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), a non-protein amino acid initially discovered in Cycas in 1967, has gained attention for its potential association with neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ...
Ecology
Sep 18, 2023
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Researchers from the Babraham Institute, UK, and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) have identified a backup mechanism of protein quality control which prevents the toxic effects of protein aggregation ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Sep 14, 2023
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Researchers at Uppsala University, Stockholm University and KTH Royal Institute of Technology have managed to create a new spatial omics method. By combining two complex techniques that are usually used separately—mass ...
Biotechnology
Sep 6, 2023
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The human brain is the center of the human nervous system and is a highly complex organ. Enclosed in the cranium, it has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times as large as the brain of a mammal with an equivalent body size. Most of the expansion comes from the cerebral cortex, a convoluted layer of neural tissue that covers the surface of the forebrain. Especially expanded are the frontal lobes, which are involved in executive functions such as self-control, planning, reasoning, and abstract thought. The portion of the brain devoted to vision is also greatly enlarged in humans.
Brain evolution, from the earliest shrewlike mammals through primates to hominids, is marked by a steady increase in encephalization, or the ratio of brain to body size. The human brain has been estimated to contain 50–100 billion (1011) neurons[citation needed], of which about 10 billion (1010) are cortical pyramidal cells.[citation needed] These cells pass signals to each other via approximately 100 trillion (1014)[citation needed] synaptic connections.
In spite of the fact that it is protected by the thick bones of the skull, suspended in cerebrospinal fluid, and isolated from the bloodstream by the blood-brain barrier, the delicate nature of the human brain makes it susceptible to many types of damage and disease. The most common forms of physical damage are closed head injuries such as a blow to the head, a stroke, or poisoning by a wide variety of chemicals that can act as neurotoxins. Infection of the brain is rare because of the barriers that protect it, but is very serious when it occurs. More common are genetically based diseases[citation needed], such as Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, and many others. A number of psychiatric conditions, such as schizophrenia and depression, are widely thought to be caused at least partially by brain dysfunctions, although the nature of such brain anomalies is not well understood.
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