The World of Humans @Tumblr @dylanewheeler - Tumblr Blog

Posts

the-right-writing

Things almost every author needs to research

How bodies decompose

Wilderness survival skills

Mob mentality

Other cultures

What it takes for a human to die in a given situation

Common tropes in your genre

Average weather for your setting

clevergirlhelps

yoooo

How bodies decompose

Wilderness survival skills

Mob mentality

Other cultures

What it takes for a human to die in a given situation

Common tropes for your genre

Average weather for your setting

nanowrimo

Four Questions to Ask About Each Draft

The “Now What?” Months are here! In 2014, we’ll be bringing you advice from authors who published their NaNo-novels, editors, agents, and more to help you polish November’s first draft until it gleams. Author Liz Coley guides you through four questions she asks about each of her manuscripts:

Come each November 30, I’ve usually got a 50,017-word manuscript with an inspired and page-turning start, a middle featuring holes or inconsistencies, and an end that feels like a mad dash to the last scene (because it was).

This document is what I call my “white room” draft. It lacks furniture and paint, or more specifically, well-interspersed action beats to break up the dialogue and well-integrated physical details of characters and setting. And frequently, though the foundation is good, it lacks a wall or two and a decent roof to cap it all off.

Since I started NaNoWriMo in 2006, I’ve developed a four-step revision cycle—beginning with Step Zero: take December to finish the story. With the new year, revising begins in earnest. Simply stated, four questions must be answered and satisfied:

neurosciencestuff

Watching Molecules Morph into Memories

In two studies in the January 24 issue of Science (1, 2), researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University used advanced imaging techniques to provide a window into how the brain makes memories. These insights into the molecular basis of memory were made possible by a technological tour de force never before achieved in animals: a mouse model developed at Einstein in which molecules crucial to making memories were given fluorescent “tags” so they could be observed traveling in real time in living brain cells.

Efforts to discover how neurons make memories have long confronted a major roadblock: Neurons are extremely sensitive to any kind of disruption, yet only by probing their innermost workings can scientists view the molecular processes that culminate in memories. To peer deep into neurons without harming them, Einstein researchers developed a mouse model in which they fluorescently tagged all molecules of messenger RNA (mRNA) that code for beta-actin protein – an essential structural protein found in large amounts in brain neurons and considered a key player in making memories. mRNA is a family of RNA molecules that copy DNA’s genetic information and translate it into the proteins that make life possible.

"It’s noteworthy that we were able to develop this mouse without having to use an artificial gene or other interventions that might have disrupted neurons and called our findings into question," said Robert Singer, Ph.D., the senior author of both papers and professor and co-chair of Einstein’s department of anatomy & structural biology and co-director of the Gruss Lipper Biophotonics Center at Einstein. He also holds the Harold and Muriel Block Chair in Anatomy & Structural Biology at Einstein.

In the research described in the two Science papers, the Einstein researchers stimulated neurons from the mouse’s hippocampus, where memories are made and stored, and then watched fluorescently glowing beta-actin mRNA molecules form in the nuclei of neurons and travel within dendrites, the neuron’s branched projections. They discovered that mRNA in neurons is regulated through a novel process described as “masking” and “unmasking,” which allows beta-actin protein to be synthesized at specific times and places and in specific amounts.

"We know the beta-actin mRNA we observed in these two papers was ‘normal’ RNA, transcribed from the mouse’s naturally occurring beta-actin gene," said Dr. Singer. "And attaching green fluorescent protein to mRNA molecules did not affect the mice, which were healthy and able to reproduce."

Neurons come together at synapses, where slender dendritic “spines” of neurons grasp each other, much as the fingers of one hand bind those of the other. Evidence indicates that repeated neural stimulation increases the strength of synaptic connections by changing the shape of these interlocking dendrite “fingers.” Beta-actin protein appears to strengthen these synaptic connections by altering the shape of dendritic spines. Memories are thought to be encoded when stable, long-lasting synaptic connections form between neurons in contact with each other.

The first paper describes the work of Hye Yoon Park, Ph.D., a postdoctoral student in Dr. Singer’s lab at the time and now an instructor at Einstein. Her research was instrumental in developing the mice containing fluorescent beta-actin mRNA—a process that took about three years.

Dr. Park stimulated individual hippocampal neurons of the mouse and observed newly formed beta-actin mRNA molecules within 10 to 15 minutes, indicating that nerve stimulation had caused rapid transcription of the beta-actin gene. Further observations suggested that these beta-actin mRNA molecules continuously assemble and disassemble into large and small particles, respectively. These mRNA particles were seen traveling to their destinations in dendrites where beta-actin protein would be synthesized.

In the second paper, lead author and graduate student Adina Buxbaum of Dr. Singer’s lab showed that neurons may be unique among cells in how they control the synthesis of beta-actin protein.

"Having a long, attenuated structure means that neurons face a logistical problem," said Dr. Singer. "Their beta-actin mRNA molecules must travel throughout the cell, but neurons need to control their mRNA so that it makes beta-actin protein only in certain regions at the base of dendritic spines."

Ms. Buxbaum’s research revealed the novel mechanism by which brain neurons handle this challenge. She found that as soon as beta-actin mRNA molecules form in the nucleus of hippocampal neurons and travel out to the cytoplasm, the mRNAs are packaged into granules and so become inaccessible for making protein. She then saw that stimulating the neuron caused these granules to fall apart, so that mRNA molecules became unmasked and available for synthesizing beta-actin protein.

But that observation raised a question: How do neurons prevent these newly liberated mRNAs from making more beta-actin protein than is desirable? “Ms. Buxbaum made the remarkable observation that mRNA’s availability in neurons is a transient phenomenon,” said Dr. Singer. “She saw that after the mRNA molecules make beta-actin protein for just a few minutes, they suddenly repackage and once again become masked. In other words, the default condition for mRNA in neurons is to be packaged and inaccessible.”

These findings suggest that neurons have developed an ingenious strategy for controlling how memory-making proteins do their job. “This observation that neurons selectively activate protein synthesis and then shut it off fits perfectly with how we think memories are made,” said Dr. Singer. “Frequent stimulation of the neuron would make mRNA available in frequent, controlled bursts, causing beta-actin protein to accumulate precisely where it’s needed to strengthen the synapse.”

To gain further insight into memory’s molecular basis, the Singer lab is developing technologies for imaging neurons in the intact brains of living mice in collaboration with another Einstein faculty member in the same department, Vladislav Verkhusha, Ph.D. Since the hippocampus resides deep in the brain, they hope to develop infrared fluorescent proteins that emit light that can pass through tissue. Another possibility is a fiberoptic device that can be inserted into the brain to observe memory-making hippocampal neurons.

neurosciencestuff

A new brain-imaging technique enables people to ‘watch’ their own brain activity in real time and to control or adjust function in pre-determined brain regions. The study from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro, McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre,...

penny4nasa

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, set to launch in 2016, will be the first U.S. mission to bring samples from an asteroid back to Earth, and now you can be a part of it! NASA and The Planetary Society’s “Messages to Bennu!” is the latest in a long line of outreach programs inviting the public to send their names aboard groundbreaking missions. OSIRIS-REx will send a capsule back to Earth with samples from the asteroid Bennu, and the list of names will stay in long-term orbit around the sun with rest of the spent spacecraft.

Programs like this have been extremely successful with other missions, including MSL Curiosity, which carried a pair of dime-sized microchips with a total of 1,246,445 names representing 246 countries to the surface of the Red Planet. Other NASA missions that carried names into space include the Kepler Space Telescope, the Pluto-bound New Horizons probe, MAVEN, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Mars Exploration Rover “Opportunity”. In case you’re still not convinced that this is an amazing opportunity, Bill Nye, chief executive of The Planetary Society, had this to say: “You will be part of humankind’s exploration of the solar system — how cool is that?”

To be part of “Messages to Bennu!”, submit your name no later than September 30 at www.planetary.org/bennu.

http://www.space.com/24315-nasa-asteroid-mission-names-osiris-rex.html

http://science.nasa.gov/missions/osiris-rex/

Image Credit: NASA/The Planetary Society

takepart

dylanewheeler

Pavegen tiles installed in the floor harness the kinetic energy from foot traffic and convert it to electricity.

One family's inspiring tale of their first Earthship construction:

"Christened an "Earthship" by designer/architect Michael Reynolds, literally hundreds of these homes (made primarily from old automobile tires and beer cans) have been constructed in the Southwestern U.S. This project is the first Earthship constructed within the state of Ohio.

The concept is pretty cool - taking advantage of the natural heating and cooling properties of the earth, the passive heat of the sun, discarded and problem waste materials and mixing these with an embracing attitude toward your environment - the result is a comfortable and peaceful place to live. If you want to find more background on the concept (and a whole lot more), check out the source at www.earthship.org." Read More>>>

#sustainability #earthship #construction #agritecture #minimalism

killfatme-deactivated20140528

dylanewheeler

Earthships are 100% sustainable homes that are both cheap to build and awesome to live in. They offer amenities like no other sustainable building style you have come across. For the reasons that follow, I believe Earthships can actually change the world. See for yourself!

agritecture

Vertical Farms Sprouting All Over The World

Urban warehouses, derelict buildings and high-rises are the last places you’d expect to find the seeds of a green revolution. But from Singapore to Scranton, Pennsylvania, “vertical farms” are promising a new, environmentally friendly way to feed the rapidly swelling populations of cities worldwide.

In March, the world’s largest vertical farm is set to open up shop in Scranton. Built by Green Spirit Farms (GSF) of New Buffalo, Michigan, it will only be a single storey covering 3.25 hectares, but with racks stacked six high it will house 17 million plants. And it is just one of a growing number.

Vertical farms aim to avoid the problems inherent in growing food crops in drought-and-disease-prone fields many hundreds of kilometres from the population centres in which they will be consumed. Instead, Dickson Despommier – an ecologist at Columbia University in New York City who has championed vertical farms since 1999 – suggests that food should be grown year-round in high-rise urban buildings, reducing the need for the carbon-emitting transport of fruit and vegetables.

The plant racks in a vertical farm can be fed nutrients by water-conserving, soil-free hydroponic systems and lit by LEDs that mimic sunlight. And they need not be difficult to manage: control software can choreograph rotating racks of plants so each gets the same amount of light, and direct water pumps to ensure nutrients are evenly distributed.

The whole apparatus can be monitored from a farmer’s smartphone (see “Farming from afar”), says GSF’s R&D manager, Daniel Kluko. He says the new farm in Scranton will grow 14 lettuce crops per year, as well as spinach, kale, tomatoes, peppers, basil and strawberries. Its output will be almost 10 times greater than the firm’s first vertical farm, which opened in New Buffalo in 2011.

Proponents see vertical farming as a way to feed a global population that is urbanising fast: 86 per cent of the people in the developed world will live in cities by 2050, the United Nations predicts. It could make food supplies more secure as well, because production can continue even when extreme weather strikes. And as long as farmers are careful to protect their indoor “fields” from pests, vertical farming needs no herbicides or insecticides. They also conserve water far better than earthbound farming.

ratetea

Organic-certified products have become much more popular in recent years. But organic certification is not the be-all and end-all of ecologically-sound agriculture or shopping. Both in the world of tea, and in other types of agricultural products, there are a lot of issues that are not adequately...

tinyhousecollab

Photo via Alek Lisefski of The Tiny Project

Issue No. 1 Taking The First Step To A Tiny House

No matter how many times the question is answered via blog post, forum thread, Q&A, book entry, or magazine article, many in the tiny house community are used to being asked

"What would the first steps be if I’m considering buying/building a small home for my future?" It’s a fine question. There is no doubt to that. But the fact remains that tiny house building (as with many things) there is no right or wrong, black or white, left or right. For every tiny house there is a different thought, process, or methodology. So a few of us had an ongoing conversation in an attempt to combine our personal responses into something more broad and more representative of a greater juncture. The conversation began innocently enough with Gabe Craft of Small & Tiny Home Ideas asking, “What steps did you make toward building/buying your small home? Sounds simple enough, right? We found out it was not. Responses came in from around the globe with some folks simply answering, “Draw a sketch,” “…buy a Jay Shafer book,” and even “Find a good builder and buy something from them.” But the conversation got deeper and more people began sharing personal anecdotes and experiences that led to deeper answers and truths that have not yet been written about. For instance Ella Jenkins of Little Yellow Door admitted to backing herself in a bit of a corner... Read More>>>

dylanewheeler

Are you considering a minimalist lifestyle?