Little Random Things

Just some random, interesting stuffs that I learnt about...

[allrandomstuffs-blog]

[allrandomstuffs-blog]

[biologylair]

The short-tailed fruit bat Carollia perspicillata Stage 14 embryo nervous system as identified by neurofilament antibody (brown) staining. Note that the characteristic developments of vertebrate embryos are present.

Source: UNSW Embryology

[allrandomstuffs-blog]

Can you read the words in the image? If you can, you might be red green colour deficient. There are two types of red green colour deficiency: Deuteranopia: the M-cones are missing, or non-functional, resulting in blindness to the green portion of the spectrum. 5% of males and 0.1% of females suffer this form of green color blindness. Deuteranomaly: The M-Cones are defective, operating below normal capacity to interfere with a person’s ability to see some shades of green, shifting color sensitivity toward the red sensitive L-cones. 1% of males and 0.35% of females suffer this form. The reason why more males are affected because the disease is sex linked, which means the genes that code for the protein is found on the x-chromosomes, which the males only have one while females have two copies. Anyway, the answer to the picture is NO

[allrandomstuffs-blog]

PSC-RANTES Blocks R5 Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection of Langerhans Cells Isolated from Individuals with a Variety of CCR5 Diplotypes A new microbicide has proved successful in preventing infection with the AIDS virus in monkeys. The compound holds promise for developing barriers to HIV in humans.

[allrandomstuffs-blog]

Can you spot the hidden saxophone man?? Hint: Look around the tree

[allrandomstuffs-blog]

Because of the perspective, we see the left man being much taller than the guy standing right next to him. But then, they are both the same size.

[allrandomstuffs-blog]

[allrandomstuffs-blog]

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia is a Greek word (pronounced hexa-koseeo-ee-hexe-konta-hexaphobia) meaning the fear,of number 666

[amolecularmatter-blog]

Meet The Neurosphere

A neurosphere is a system composed of free-floating clusters of neural stem cells. Because stem cells cannot be studied in vivo, neurospheres provide a method of investigating neural precursor cells in vitro. To grow a neurosphere, putative neural stem cells are suspended in a medium lacking adherent substrates but containing necessary growth factors, like epidermal growth factor and fibroblast growth factor. This allows the neural cells to form characteristic 3D spheres. 

The clinical applications of neurospheres are still in their infancy, but they have the potential to help treat many diseases. Transplanted neural stem cells are not only able to cross the blood-brain barrier and integrate themselves into the host’s brain without disrupting normal function - they are also incredibly versatile, and have been shown to proliferate and differentiate in various other tissues of the body when transplanted. Researchers are currently exploring the use of neural stem cells obtained from neurospheres to aid in the growth of inner ear neurons and hair cells; the hope is that these cells may be able to restore auditory function in hearing-impaired patients.

The image above is of a neurosphere from Vanderbilt University’s Department of Molecular and Cell Biology.

[allrandomstuffs-blog]

[sciencenote]

Foiling Fungi

Whether you are breathing in the fresh air of the countryside or the smog of the city, odds are you have inhaled hundreds of spores of fungi. Aspergillus fumigatus is one such fungus. Its coral-like colonies thrive in compost heaps across the country and when inhaled it’s soon destroyed by our immune system. However for people with weakened immunity, such as those with AIDS or leukaemia, this fungus can be deadly. Anti-fungal drugs can be used to combat its destructive effects. Applying one of a family of anti-fungal agents, called echinocandins, results in irrevocable damage by causing the tips of the fungal branches to rupture (seen here highly magnified by electron microscopy). And because they target only the fungal cell wall – the tough outer covering – human cells are left unharmed.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Aspergillus fumigatus is a fungus of the genus Aspergillus, and is one of the most common Aspergillus species to cause disease in individuals with an immunodeficiency.

A. fumigatus, a saprotroph widespread in nature, is typically found in soil and decaying organic matter, such as compost heaps, where it plays an essential role in carbon and nitrogen recycling. Colonies of the fungus produce from conidiophores thousands of minute grey-green conidia (2–3 μm) that readily become airborne. For many years, A. fumigatus was thought to only reproduce asexually, as neither mating nor meiosis had ever been observed. In 2008, however, A. fumigatus was shown to possess a fully functional sexual reproductive cycle, 145 years after its original description by Fresenius

[allrandomstuffs-blog]

yaaawwwnnn

[allrandomstuffs-blog]

There is always not enough time?

[discoverynews]

This would be a sad sight, indeed.

Birds Hold Funerals for Their Dead

The birds gather around their fallen friend and sing to such a degree that the din gathers more birds, who then sing and in turn gather more. After the funeral ceremony the birds avoid foraging in the area around the deceased bird for at least 24 hours.

read more…

[kidsneedscience]

Today is the birthday of physicist Louis Essen, inventor of the cesium atomic clock.  Cesium (also spelled caesium) was discovered using the new method of flame spectroscopy in 1860 by two German scientists, Robert Bunsen (yes, of Bunsen burner fame) and Gustav Kirchhoff.  They decided to name the new element after its unusual and unique spectrographic signature, specifically the preponderance of the color sky blue, which you can see in the spectrograph above.  The word came from the Latin word caesius meaning blue-gray, often referring to the color of eyes.  

Check the sidebar for more cesium:  clocks, explosions and more!

Image of pollucite (a common mineral rich in cesium) courtesy Rob Lavinsky.  Image of ampule of liquid cesium (although a metal, cesium is liquid at room temperature) by argentoratum.   To see the spectrograph of any element, check out the cool site by University of Oregon.  

[allrandomstuffs-blog]

What a cool phobia