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OPAH IS THE FIRST FISH FOUND WITH A WHOLE-BODY ENDOTHERMY

Of all the fish in the world, only a few have the ability to keep warm in certain parts of their bodies. But new research reveals that opah (Lampris guttatus) have the ability, unprecedented, of circulate warm-blood throughout the body, so it is the only known fish that has warm-blood.

The ability to generate heat internally is what distinguishes birds from mammals and fish. So far, only some predators, such as tuna, have demonstrated the ability to heat certain muscles and organs while chasing their prey, but they have to return to the surface to increase the temperature of the rest of its body.

According to researchers Lampris guttatus mainly increases its body temperature through constant flapping of its pectoral fins

Werner, who leads the study adds that opah has specialized blood vessels in their gills, forming countercurrent heat exchangers to minimize this loss of heat to the water when the fish breathe .

An advantage of constant heating of the fish is seen in improved performance. “A hot cranial region allows opah to increase reaction rates and visual resolution. This is important when these fish look for food in the cold, deep waters, where they spend most of their time, "remarks Wegner.

Reference: Wegner et al. 2015 “Whole body endothermy in a mesopelagic fish, the opah, Lampris guttatus” Science

Photo: NOAA Fisheries/Southwest Fisheries Science Center

#Reblog

compoundchem

Still recovering from last night’s celebrations? Here’s what your body does with the alcohol!

itsokaytobesmart

Anybody out there suffering from excess acetaldehyde symptoms this morning?

#HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS #Reblogged

Update!

Hello fellow science enthusiasts!

Just a message to say that I'm REALLY sorry that I haven't been posting much in the last few months! But I'm all settled in at university now and learning so much about different areas of biology and things I couldn't even imagine before I started studying! Everything is so interesting!

I'm back doing my own little on-line research projects and looking into things I find interesting so I promise that I'll start posting more, especially about what I'm studying! Its just that sometimes I'll start writing and come across something related but different and head down a totally different alley! I'm going to be more focused and more productive! More posts for everyone :D

Hope you've all had a lovely holiday, and here's to the new year! I hope you have a brilliant one, filled with exciting scientific endeavours and discoveries! :)

If there is anything anyone would like me to write a post about, something you don't understand or something you would like to know more about just drop me an ask and I'll do my best to find some fun facts and interesting info for you!

Stay safe,

Stephie x

merismo

These microscopic animals have gone 40 million years without sex

Bdelloid rotifers are commonly found in lakes and ponds. They are too small to be seen by the naked eye, yet contain a complete digestive system, a nervous system, and even simple eyes.

What’s even more interesting is that male Bdelloid rotifers simply don’t exist. The female rotifers are capable of producing fully-functional offspring all by themselves.

Many of us were taught in biology class that asexual reproduction is not well-suited for survival in the long run. Animals require gene mutation and gene mixing in order to adapt to environments over time. Yet these asexual organisms have survived millions of years and have even diversified into 450 different species. How do they do it?

It’s a strange process. First things first, a harsh environment needs to arise. This usually means that the body of water they reside in dries up. In reaction to this, rotifers enter a sort of hibernation called anhydrobiosis. They squeeze out most of the water from their bodies and produce chemicals that act as biological preservatives. They can remain in this inactive state for up to 9 years(!)

Once conditions improve, they rehydrate and sponge up any loose DNA in their surroundings* and incorporate it into their own genome. It doesn’t matter where this DNA came from- plants, animals, fungi, even bacteria. After all, DNA is the universal code of life. It is from this horizontal gene transfer that Bdelloid rotifers can maintain genetic diversity.

*Yes, loose DNA strands are found in aquatic environments! They usually emerge from ruptured or dead cells

(Picture is mine)

(Info source)

Scales

This is because Fahrenheit is based on a brine scale and the human body. The scale is basically how cold does it have to be to freeze saltwater (zero Fahrenheit) to what temperature is the human body (100-ish Fahrenheit, although now we know that’s not exactly accurate). Fahrenheit was designed around humans. Celsius and Kelvin are designed around the natural world. Celsius is a scale based on water. Zero is when water freezes, 100 is when water boils. Kelvin uses the same scale as Celsius (one degree, as a unit, is the same between the two), but defines zero as absolute zero, which is basically the temperature at which atoms literally stop doing that spinning thing. Nothing can exist below zero Kelvin. It’s the bottom of the scale. So. Fahrenheit: what temperatures affect humans Celsius: what temperatures affect water Kelvin: what temperatures affect atoms

spinningyarns

Why didn’t my science teachers ever see fit to toss off this little fact?

funscienceisfun

Useful way too look at it!

#Reblogged

theatlantic

The Toxins That Threaten Our Brains

Leading scientists recently identified a dozen chemicals as being responsible for widespread behavioral and cognitive problems. But the scope of the chemical dangers in our environment is likely even greater. Why children and the poor are most susceptible to neurotoxic exposure that may be costing the U.S. billions of dollars and immeasurable peace of mind.

Read more. [Image: Jackie Lay]

#reblogged

laboratoryequipment-blog

Spinal Cord Stimulation Slows Parkinson’s-like Symptoms Researchers at Duke Medicine have shown that continuing spinal cord stimulation appears to produce improvements in symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, and may protect critical neurons from injury or deterioration. The study, performed in rats, is published online in the journal Scientific Reports. It builds on earlier findings from the Duke team that stimulating the spinal cord with electrical signals temporarily eased symptoms of the neurological disorder in rodents. Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2014/01/spinal-cord-stimulation-slows-parkinson%E2%80%99s-symptoms

todropscience

NEW SPECIES: ICE-LOVING SEA ANEMONES FOUND IN ANTARCTICA

Exploration of the lower surface of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica with a remotely operated vehicle discovered a new species of sea anemone living in this previously undocumented ecosystem.

Edwardsiella andrillae lives with most of its column in the ice shelf, with only the tentacle crown extending into the seawater below. In addition to being the only Antarctic representative of the genus, Edwardsiella andrillae is distinguished from all other species of the genus in the number of tentacles and in the size and distribution of cnidae. The anatomy and histology of Edwardsiella andrillae present no features that explain how this animal withstands the challenges of life in such an unusual habitat.

Reference (Open Access) Daly et a, 2014. Edwardsiella andrillae, a new species of sea anemone from antarctic ice.

scishow

WHY DID SCIENTISTS MAKE RATS GLOW?

Hank explains why scientists spend so much time and brain power making animals that glow. Well, first thing is, they don’t really glow. And second thing is: Scientists are just like the rest of us in that they don’t believe some things until they see them. Details inside.

scienceyoucanlove-deactivated20

These are baby seahorses being ejected from the father’s brooding pouch. Male seahorses can carry up to 2,000 eggs at a time and the pregnancy lasts from 10 to 25 days, depending on the species. Image via Francesco Turano via Yo amo la Biología

source

Hi everyone!

I was browsing a few science websites and I found this really interesting! I hope in the future we will be able to understand a bit more about it, but for now I think this is an incredible start!

Here are a few of the websites I got some of the information off of:

http://io9.com/a-new-scientific-explanation-for-near-death-experiences-1110395345 http://io9.com/5841952/the-scientific-explanations-behind-near+death-experiences http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23672150 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23672150?print=true http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23681651 http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/12/in-dying-brains-signs-of-heightened-consciousness/ http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/08/08/1308285110

#FunScienceIsFun #Brains #Neuroscience #Hyperconsciousness #Science #Interesting

neurosciencestuff

How depression blurs memories

To pinpoint why depression messes with memory, researchers took a page from Sesame Street’s book.

The show’s popular game “One of these things is not like the others” helps young viewers learn to differentiate things that are similar – a process known as “pattern separation.”

A new Brigham Young University study concludes that this same skill fades in adults in proportion to the severity of their symptoms of depression. The more depressed someone feels, the harder it is for them to distinguish similar experiences they’ve had.

If you’ve ever forgotten where you parked the car, you know the feeling (though it doesn’t mean you have depression).

“That’s really the novel aspect of this study – that we are looking at a very specific aspect of memory,” said Brock Kirwan, a psychology and neuroscience professor at BYU.

Depression has been generally linked to poor memory for a long time. To find out why, Kirwan and his former grad student D.J. Shelton put people through a computer-aided memory test. The participants viewed a series of objects on the screen. For each one, they responded whether they had seen the object before on the test (old), seen something like it (similar), or not seen anything like it (new).

With old and new items, participants with depression did just fine. They often got it wrong, however, when looking at objects that were similar to something they had seen previously. The most common incorrect answer was that they had seen the object before.

“They don’t have amnesia,” Kirwan said. “They are just missing the details.”

This can be a challenge in a number of everyday situations, such as trying to remember which friends and family members you’ve told about something personal – and which ones are still in the dark.

The findings also give an important clue about what is happening in the brain that might explain this.

“There are two areas in your brain where you grow new brain cells,” Kirwan said. “One is the hippocampus, which is involved in memory. It turns out that this growth is decreased in cases of depression.”

Because of this study, we know a little more about what these new brain cells are for: helping us see and remember new experiences. The study appears in the journal Behavioral Brain Research.

#reblogged

psicologicamenteblog

Source: This is how your brain ages.

Follow Francesca Mura on Pinterest

#reblogged

themedicalstate

Is this the most extraordinary human brain ever seen?

ONCE you know what it is, this apparently innocuous picture of a blob assumes a terrible gravity. It is an adult human brain that is entirely smooth – free of the ridges and folds so characteristic of our species’ most complex organ.

We can only imagine what life was like for this person. He or she was a resident of what is now North Texas State Hospital, a mental health facility,and died there in 1970, but that’s all we know. While the jar containing the brain is labelled with a reference number, the microfilm containing the patient’s medical records has been lost.

Photographer Adam Voorhes spent a year trying to track down more information about this and nearly 100 other human brains held in a collection at the University of Texas, Austin, to no avail. The label on the jar states that the patient had agyria – a lack of gyri and sulci, the ridges and folds formed by the normally wrinkled cerebral cortex. This rare condition, also known as lissencephaly, often leads to death before the age of 10. It can cause muscle spasms, seizures and, as it vastly reduces the surface area of this key part of the brain, a range of learning difficulties.

David Dexter, who runs the Parkinson’s UK Brain Bank at Imperial College London, says he has never seen anything like this before: “We do get the odd individual where certain sulci are missing but nothing to the extent of this brain.” Dexter says he is not surprised the person survived to adulthood since the brain is so adaptive, though he guesses there would be deleterious effects.

Earlier this year the University of Texas took delivery of an MRI scanner to document the structure of the brains in the collection in detail. While this might teach us more about the brain itself, the identity of the person who had this extraordinary brain – and details of his or her life – seem to be lost forever.

#reblogged

thenewenlightenmentage

Sieving Through ‘Junk’ DNA Reveals Disease-Causing Genetic Mutations

Oct. 3, 2013 — Scientists have revealed nearly 100 genetic variants implicated in the development of cancers such as breast cancer and prostate cancer.

The new method designed by the team, described in the journal Science, identified these variants in the under-explored regions of DNA that do not code for proteins, but instead influence activity of other genes. As even more whole genome sequences become available, this approach can be applied to find any potential disease-causing variant in the non-coding regions of the genome.

#reblogged

negatesix

ucresearch

Hidden magma layer acts as a lubricant for Earth’s crust

UC San Diego researchers have found a layer of molten rock right below the Earth’s crust that may help with the movement of the planet’s tectonic plates.

“One of the longer-term implications of our results is that we are going to understand more about the plate boundary, which could lead to a better understanding of earthquakes.”

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