Colorless green shakeweights sleep furiously

popculturebrain: Andrew Rannells, Megan Hilty and Lauren...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 02:28:15 -0400

Andrew Rannells, Megan Hilty and Lauren Benanti Join NPH on the Tonys to lament their canceled TV series.

jtotheizzoe: mathani: (following 1ucasvb) Catch a wave.

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 17:50:51 -0400

jtotheizzoe:

mathani:

(following 1ucasvb)

Catch a wave.

Photo

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 01:29:34 -0400

Una pequeña muestra de las fotografías del Espectacular de...

Sat, 18 May 2013 17:26:27 -0400

Blue Demon

La familia Solar

El Santo

La Briosa

Tinieblas, Alushe y Tinieblas Jr.

Una pequeña muestra de las fotografías del Espectacular de lucha libre de Lourdes Grobet.

jtotheizzoe: Seeing the Brain With New CLARITY A new brain...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 02:07:10 -0400

jtotheizzoe:

Seeing the Brain With New CLARITY

A new brain imaging technique called CLARITY allows neural structures to be reconstructed in three dimensions better than ever before. It does so by turning the brain “transparent”.

Truly understanding the inner workings of the brain means studying not only how individual neurons function, but also how they are wired together. Even with techniques like the beautiful “brainbow”, untangling spaghetti-like long-range connections has proven difficult.

Stanford University neuroscientists have taken a step in that direction with their new CLARITY method. Neurons and other cells are normally labeled by sticking fluorescent tags on various proteins and other molecules that a researcher wants to study. That way we can literally see where and how they function. But looking into a three-dimensional brain is like peering into murky water: the fatty cell membranes and neuron sheaths just get in the way.

The Stanford researchers immobilized these mouse brains in a gel, then washed away all the murky muck. This left all the connections and proteins in their right place, free to be labeled in a clear block of brain Jell-O.

For more: Head over to Nature News to read more, and be sure to watch their great, detailed video to find out more about how it was done. If you’re interested, here’s the research paper in this week’s Nature.

My mind isBLOWN

Photo

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 02:02:54 -0400

theclearlydope: I’m getting the Toonces image tatted on my...

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 20:25:00 -0400

theclearlydope:

I’m getting the Toonces image tatted on my chest … TODAY.

nbcsnl:

We LOVE these! Check out all the pieces from Gallery 1988’s SNL art show right here.

I want Jeunice as my tramp stamp. The end.

theclearlydope: Pizza Francis: I guess the new Pope is legit...

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:57:59 -0400

theclearlydope:

Pizza Francis: I guess the new Pope is legit now.

Pizza by Domenico Crolla.

neurosciencestuff: Stanford psychologists uncover brain-imaging...

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 13:00:20 -0400

neurosciencestuff:

Stanford psychologists uncover brain-imaging inaccuracies

Pictures of brain regions “activating” are by now a familiar accompaniment to any neurological news story. With functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, you can see specific brain regions light up, standing out against the background like night owls’ apartment windows.

It’s easy to forget that these brain images aren’t real snapshots of brain activity. Instead, each picture is the result of many layers of analysis and interpretation, far removed from raw data.

“It’s just one representation of brain activity,” said Matthew Sacchet, a PhD student in the Neurosciences Program at the Stanford School of Medicine. “As you process the data, it can change.”

Sacchet works in the lab of Stanford psychology Associate Professor Brian Knutson, who studies reward processing in a small area of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens. Precisely how that structure activates is at the heart of an ongoing debate about reward circuits – a subject that holds relevance for our understanding of everything from addiction to financial risk-taking.

Unfortunately, according to a paper from Knutson and Sacchet, hundreds of research papers on this circuit may be unintentionally biased. When the labs processed their fMRI findings, many used a one-size-fits-all strategy that skewed which regions of the brain appeared to be activating.

“I honestly think most people want good data,” said Knutson. “I’m excited that we can make this kind of research more rigorous.”

The paper appeared in the journal NeuroImage.

Too much smoothing

Functional magnetic resonance imaging measures changes in blood flow in the brain. It’s a powerful tool, but the signal fMRI actually detects – the result of the magnetic differences between oxygenated and deoxygenated blood – is noisy.

Researchers need to statistically process the data in order to make the resulting data interpretable. One of the most common approaches is known as “spatial smoothing,” which involves averaging the activity of each brain region with that of its neighbors.

But fMRI has only been in use since the mid-1990s. Many of the most common analyses in use today are holdovers from older, lower-resolution types of imaging and seem to have some undesired effects on the finer-grained signals fMRI can provide.

Knutson and Sacchet found that when researchers process fMRI data with a traditional “smoothing kernel” of 8mm, they end up averaging their images over too large an area. Activity in smaller brain structures can then be overlooked, or even shifted to areas that receive more blood flow and where the blood oxygenation level-dependent signal is stronger.

“It might seem strange that a systematic bias like that could bias the whole field,” Knutson said. “But if half the people use 8mm and half use 4mm, you might end up with very different results, and it could add up.”

Reward structure

These statistical pitfalls are particularly glaring when studying the small, structurally complex nucleus accumbens.

Findings from the Knutson Lab, which has been using the smaller, 4mm smoothing kernel for years, suggest that different parts of the nucleus accumbens have different functions. The forward portion seems to distinguish between positive or negative stimuli, reacting specifically to rewards. Meanwhile, the rear section responds more to the intensity of the motivation.

While some other labs have corroborated this finding, others only found activation in the rear half of the structure.

These contradictory findings now appear to have been skewed. Because the back of the nucleus accumbens is larger and surrounded by more blood-infused gray matter than the front, the smoothing step made it appear as if all the nucleus accumbens’ activity originated far to the rear.

A collaborator in Germany already has taken the paper’s advice, Sacchet said. “She had a colleague reanalyze her data and found the same thing we found.”

Knutson emphasized that the research paper doesn’t mean “the methods are bunk.” Simply improving the way scientists process signals can enhance their ability to locate specific brain functions.

“There may be a debate, but you can resolve that debate with data,” he said.

Very intetesting

neurosciencestuff: Brain-to-brain interface allows transmission...

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 10:09:54 -0500

neurosciencestuff:

Brain-to-brain interface allows transmission of tactile and motor information between rats

Researchers have electronically linked the brains of pairs of rats for the first time, enabling them to communicate directly to solve simple behavioral puzzles. A further test of this work successfully linked the brains of two animals thousands of miles apart—one in Durham, N.C., and one in Natal, Brazil.

The results of these projects suggest the future potential for linking multiple brains to form what the research team is calling an “organic computer,” which could allow sharing of motor and sensory information among groups of animals. The study was published Feb. 28, 2013, in the journal Scientific Reports.

“Our previous studies with brain-machine interfaces had convinced us that the rat brain was much more plastic than we had previously thought,” said Miguel Nicolelis, M.D., PhD, lead author of the publication and professor of neurobiology at Duke University School of Medicine. “In those experiments, the rat brain was able to adapt easily to accept input from devices outside the body and even learn how to process invisible infrared light generated by an artificial sensor. So, the question we asked was, ‘if the brain could assimilate signals from artificial sensors, could it also assimilate information input from sensors from a different body?’”

To test this hypothesis, the researchers first trained pairs of rats to solve a simple problem: to press the correct lever when an indicator light above the lever switched on, which rewarded the rats with a sip of water. They next connected the two animals’ brains via arrays of microelectrodes inserted into the area of the cortex that processes motor information.

Read more

jtotheizzoe: scinerds: That’s definitely one heart warming way...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 08:51:09 -0500

jtotheizzoe:

scinerds:

That’s definitely one heart warming way of looking at our anatomical system:

Hugs Keep Us Alive - Print by Lim Heng Swee

This is how I feel about basically all of science. Infinity hugs.

theclearlydope: Official New Crush Alert: The first...

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:57:41 -0500

theclearlydope:

Official New Crush Alert: The first lady.

latenightjimmy:

Evolution of Mom Dancing (with Jimmy Fallon and Michelle Obama)

In honor of the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign, Jimmy Fallon and Michelle Obama present the “Evolution of Mom Dancing.”

SHEISMYFAVORITE

dcu: Superman dressed as, well, everyone… (via:jacksviews)

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 02:57:29 -0500

dcu:

Superman dressed as, well, everyone…

(via:jacksviews)

digg: Obama hung out with some preschoolers today. Why are...

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 16:43:45 -0500

digg:

Obama hung out with some preschoolers today.

Why are you the bestesttttttt

ilovecharts: One Love: Gay Rights in US, State by State....

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:37:46 -0500

ilovecharts:

One Love: Gay Rights in US, State by State. Created by the incredible interactive team at the Guardian UK.

jtotheizzoe: The Phylogeny and Evolutionary History of...

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 10:21:44 -0500

jtotheizzoe:

The Phylogeny and Evolutionary History of Pokémon

The phylogenetic tree of kingdom Monstrasinu, also known as Pokémon, because science:

Conservationists have highlighted the importance of documenting extant Pokémon, many of which are known only from single specimens and all of which are threatened by the Pokémon fighting rings that are growing rapidly in popularity, particularly among urban youth.

Read the full paper in the Annals of Improbable Research here (page 15), check out a hi-res view of the taxonomy here, and join these Redditors in discussing any errors they may have made here.

sorealsurreal: El callejon del Beso (The Alley of a Kiss) The...

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 10:13:52 -0500

sorealsurreal:

El callejon del Beso (The Alley of a Kiss)

The Legend tells of lady named Ana who fell in love with Carlos, a poor miner who lived across the narrow alley. The young lovers met on their balconies, stretching across the tiny gap to kiss in the moonlight.

But their love was star-crossed: Ana’s father forbade the romance, and threatened to kill his daughter if he discovered the lovers together again. The next night, he caught them and, true to his warning, stabbed Ana with a dagger. Dying, Ana reached out and Carlos kissed her hand — the couple’s final kiss.

eschergirls: michellemariepfeiffer: Annette Bening was cast as...

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:30:44 -0500

eschergirls:

michellemariepfeiffer:

Annette Bening was cast as Catwoman, but was replaced by Michelle Pfeiffer when she became pregnant. Pfeiffer’s $3 million salary was $2 million more than was offered to Bening.

Michelle Pfeiffer got through 60 catsuits during the 6 month shoot, at a cost of $1,000 a time.

In order to get the cats to surround Selina when she’s knocked out, the filmmakers put tuna on a dummy version of Selina and tuna on Selina’s suit.

Madonna was considered for the role of Catwoman.

During an A&E Biography, Michelle Pfeiffer said that her Catwoman costume was vacuum sealed once she was fitted into it for scenes, so she actually had only a short amount of time to perform before she would have to have it opened or she could become light headed and pass out. She also admitted that when she first was learning to use the whip she accidentally cut her trainer’s face with it, at which he acted as a complete gentleman and continued with their training.

Susan Sarandon showed great interest in the role of Catwoman, but at age 46 was considered too old for the role.

During one scene, Michelle Pfeiffer had to put a live bird in her mouth.

The catsuit was so tight on Michelle Pfeiffer that she often had trouble hearing her own voice. Tim Burton had to tell her to lower her voice register because she would often shout her dialogue instead of just saying it.

Batman Returns (1992) by Tim Burton, Catwoman

This has been passed my way by a few people who wanted to note that Catwoman’s skintight costume was achieved by vacuum packing her in it and that it led to Pfeiffer being light headed if she performed in it for too long. (Because we sometimes talk about how superheroine costumes must be vacuum sealed to cling to breasts the way they do.)

jtotheizzoe: ilovecharts: From an awesome biologist friend of...

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 05:07:18 -0500

jtotheizzoe:

ilovecharts:

From an awesome biologist friend of mine.

-brandotgreat

This should be a poster!

This.

grumpygrumblr: acesparklegirl: netforce0: descartes-and-thosec...

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 05:04:43 -0500

grumpygrumblr:

acesparklegirl:

netforce0:

descartes-and-thosecartes:

sensorydeprivationprincess:

turboslime:

Say hello to mechanically separated chicken. It’s what all fast-food chicken is made from—things like chicken nuggets and patties. Also, the processed frozen chicken in the stores is made from it.

Basically, the entire chicken is smashed and pressed through a sieve—bones, eyes, guts, and all. it comes out looking like this.

There’s more: because it’s crawling with bacteria, it will be washed with ammonia, soaked in it, actually. Then, because it tastes gross, it will be reflavored artificially. Then, because it is weirdly pink, it will be dyed with artificial color.

But, hey, at least it tastes good, right?

High five, America!

oh my god

bitch that’s the tubby custard machine

im crying

Oh my go d it s

so, to add my 2 cents, the company who created this so-called “pink slime” is called BPI, and they are suing a number of people/companies/entities for defamation and slander because of exactly this kind of shit. i personally think it looks gross, but it’s not really all that different than how a lot of foods look in the processing plants.

justsoyouknow.gif

Bahahahahahahaha