Biotechnology
Optogeneics: Wireless Optical Brain Router
Optogenetics might be a relatively unknown area of neuroscience, but it's one that, thanks to some new research, could soon find itself (and its rodental subjects) in the spotlight. For the uninitiated, it's the practice of manipulating animal cells using light (with a little help from gene therapy). At the moment, the only real way to investigate animal cells is to knock out a function, usually by breeding a genetically engineered mutant. We can breed a fearless rat, for example. Obviously this takes a matter of weeks or months — and even then, we don’t have a way of interacting with cells in real time; a particular function is either on or off. That’s where optogenetics comes in. The first step is to make cells sensitive to light — neurons, for example — usually using a virus (a fairly standard technique for gene therapy). Then, lasers are used to control those cells. Using the rat example, first you would use a virus to make all of its brain cells optically-sensitive; then, in real time, you can test whichever part of the brain you like using lasers — or perhaps multiple parts of the brain at once.
Optogenetics has been hailed as a breakthrough in biomedical science—it promises to use light to precisely control cells in the brain to manipulate behavior, model disease processes, or even someday to deliver treatments.
Citrus Sodas can eat away teeth and bones in months!
An attempt to win a small court battle this week has put Mountain Dew in peril of losing a much larger war. PepsiCo, the soft drink's parent company, defended itself against a man who claimed he found a dead mouse in a can of the citrus soda. Experts called in by PepsiCo's lawyers offered a stomach-churning explanation for why it couldn't be true: the Mountain Dew would have dissolved the mouse, turning it into a "jelly-like substance," had it been in the can of fluid from the time of its bottling until the day the plaintiff opened it, 15 months later.
Key to Pepsi's legal argument is that there's no chance a mouse's corpse could survive, intact, for 15 months swimming in Mountain Dew. While published studies have not been conducted on how rapidly Mountain Dew would dissolve a mouse, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the neon green soda can eat away teeth and bones in a matter of months, and would likely do quite a number on a rodent.
"I think it is plausible that it could dissolve a mouse in a few months," said Yan-Fang Ren of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, who has studied the effects of citric acid on bones and teeth. "But dissolving [the mouse] does not mean it will disappear, because you'll still have the collagen and the soft tissue part. It will be like rubber."
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive method to cause depolarization or hyperpolarization in the neurons of the brain. TMS uses electromagnetic induction to induce weak electric currents using a rapidly changing magnetic field; this can cause activity in specific or general parts of the brain with minimal discomfort, allowing the functioning and interconnections of the brain to be studied. A variant of TMS, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), has been tested as a treatment tool for various neurological and psychiatric disorders including migraines, strokes, Parkinson's disease, dystonia, tinnitus, depression and auditory hallucinations.
With transcranial magnetic stimulation, a large electromagnetic coil is placed against your scalp near your forehead. The electromagnet used in transcranial magnetic stimulation creates electric currents that stimulate nerve cells in the region of your brain involved in mood control and depression. Because transcranial magnetic stimulation is a relatively new depression treatment, more studies are needed to determine how effective it is, which treatment techniques work best and whether it has any long-term side effects.
Garfish - Fish with Green Bones (Biliverdin)
The garfish (Belone belone), or sea needle, is a pelagic, oceanodromous needlefish found in brackish and marine waters of the Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea, etc. The fish lives close to the surface and has a migratory pattern similar to that of the mackerel, arriving a short time before the latter to spawn. It is long and slender, sometimes 2 or 3 feet (0.91 m) in length. From the North Sea, garfish migrate to shallow waters in April and May. They spawn in areas with eel grass in May and June. In the autumn they return to the open sea, including the Atlantic west of the British Isles.
Garfish are pelagic. They feed on small fish and leap out of the water when hooked. The garfish are oviparous and the eggs are often found attached to objects in the water by tendrils on the egg's surface. Garfish have unusually green bones (due to biliverdin) which discourages many people from eating them, but the green color is harmless. They are caught mainly in fixed nets along the coast in shallow waters. Garfish are eaten fried, baked, barbecued or smoked.
Photo credit: anka.anka28
Its pelvic fins are located in a posterior position as are its dorsal and anal fins. They are positioned for posterior flexing of the body.
Biliverdin is a green tetrapyrrolic bile pigment, and is a product of heme catabolism. It is the pigment responsible for a greenish color sometimes seen in bruises. Biliverdin results from the breakdown of the heme moiety of hemoglobin in erythrocytes. Macrophages break down senescent erythrocytes and break the heme down into biliverdin, which normally rapidly reduces to free bilirubin. Biliverdin is seen briefly in some bruises as a green color. Its breakdown into bilirubin in bruises, leads to a yellowish color.
Role in disease: Biliverdin has been found in excess in the blood of humans suffering from hepatic diseases. Jaundice is caused by the accumulation of biliverdin or bilirubin (or both) in the circulatory system and tissues. Jaundiced skin and sclera (whites of the eyes) are characteristic of liver failure.
One of the strongest, lightest materials on Earth: Spider Silk
Cheryl Hayashi studies spider silk, one of nature's most high-performance materials. Each species of spider can make up to 7 very different kinds of silk. How do they do it? Hayashi explains at the DNA level -- then shows us how this super-strong, super-flexible material can inspire.