02 maio 2015
M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy
Follow the handle of the Big Dipper away from the dipper's bowl until you get to the handle's last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and you might find this stunning pair of interacting galaxies, the 51st entry in Charles Messier famous catalog. Perhaps the original spiral nebula, the large galaxy with well defined spiral structure is also cataloged as NGC 5194. Its spiral arms and dust lanes clearly sweep in front of its companion galaxy (right), NGC 5195. The pair are about 31 million light-years distant and officially lie within the angular boundaries of the small constellation Canes Venatici. Though M51 looks faint and fuzzy to the eye, deep images like this one can reveal striking colors and the faint tidal debris around the smaller galaxy
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grumbyoldguy: 19withbonyknees: National Geographic...
National Geographic photographers are metal as fuck
Hay John, Sorry I tripped you
This is your teen’s brain behind the wheel A new study...
This is your teen’s brain behind the wheel
A new study of teenagers and their moms reveals how adolescent brains negotiate risk – and the factors that modulate their risk-taking behind the wheel. In the study, reported in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 14-year-old subjects completed a simulated driving task while researchers tracked blood flow in their brains. In one trial, the teen driver was alone; in another, the teen’s mother was present and watching, said University of Illinois psychology professor Eva Telzer, who led the study.
Laurence Steinberg, a professor of psychology at Temple University, developed the driving task and evaluated how the presence of peers influenced teen risk-taking, Telzer said.
“He found that peers significantly increase risk-taking among teens,” Telzer said. “I wanted to know whether we could reduce risk-taking by bringing a parent into the car.”
Telzer and her colleagues observed that teens driving alone found risky decisions rewarding. Blood flow to the ventral striatum, a “reward center” in the brain, increased significantly when teen drivers chose to ignore a yellow stoplight and drove through the intersection anyway.
Previous research has demonstrated that the ventral striatum is more sensitive to rewards in adolescence than during any other developmental period, Telzer said.
“The prevailing view is that this peak in reward sensitivity in adolescence underlies, in part, adolescent risk-taking,” she said.
A mother’s presence, however, blunted the thrill of running the yellow light, Telzer and her colleagues found.
“When mom is there, the heightened ventral striatum activation during risky decisions goes away,” Telzer said. “Being risky, it appears, is no longer rewarding in the presence of mom.”
Not surprisingly, teens stepped on the brakes significantly more often at yellow lights when their moms were present than when they were alone.
“The teens go from about 55 percent risky choices to about 45 percent when their mom is watching,” Telzer said. ”That’s a big effect.”
Another brain region, the prefrontal cortex, kicked into gear when the teens put on the brakes – but only when their mom was watching, the researchers found. The PFC is important to behavioral regulation, also called “cognitive control,” Telzer said.
“When they make safe decisions, when they choose to stop instead of going through that intersection, the prefrontal cortex comes online,” she said. “It’s activated when mom is there, but not when they’re alone.” (See graphic.)
The PFC (the control center) and the ventral striatum (the reward center) are key brain regions involved in adolescent risk-taking behavior, Telzer said. But in the absence of a well-developed control center, adolescents are more susceptible to the stimulating allure of risky behavior.
“Here we’re showing that mom reduces the rewarding nature of risk-taking and increases activation of the prefrontal cortex during safe behavior,” Telzer said. “And so these two mechanisms help adolescents to think twice before running the intersection. A parent’s presence is actually changing the way the adolescent is reasoning and thinking about risk – and this increases their safe behavior.”
What Andean civilization, known for its textiles, produced this...
comet nucleus, photographed by rosetta, august 2014.7 frames...
comet nucleus, photographed by rosetta, august 2014.
7 frames of 67p/churyumov-gerasimenko, photographed 5-6th august.
in a few frames you can just make out dust jet coming from the “neck” of the comet, but the images are exposed for the nucleus, which is much brighter than the faint dust coma.
image credit: esa/mps. animation: ageofdestruction.
age“Chicago, Illinois. Man watching subway...
“Chicago, Illinois. Man watching subway construction.” July 1941.
Chilena adota bebés mortos para lhes garantir um ''enterro decente''
Bernarda Gallardo já estava na fila da adoção quando leu num jornal que um bebé recém-nascido tinha sido encontrado numa lixeira. Depois disso, Bernarda continuou em pensar em adotar um bebé, mas desta vez, morto. Este evento ocorreu em 2003
A menina que Bernarda adotou recebeu o nome de Aurora. Ela tinha sido abandonada numa lixeira em Puerto Montt, no sul do Chile. Depois de alguns meses, ela pôde finalmente, enterrar o bebé, o que ela achava como sendo o mais decente a fazer. Bernarda refere que chamou ao bebé de ''Aurora'', porque, para ela, o bebé era ''um pequeno raio de luz que mostrava que a escuridão não era a única possibilidade.''
Um dos seus objetivos é chamar à atenção da dificuldade das mães chilenas. O aborto é proibido no Chile e os hospitais não possuem nenhum compartimento onde os bebés possam ser deixados sem que o nome da mãe seja registrado.
Tudo começou a 4 de abril de 2003, quando o cadáver de Aurora foi encontrado num saco do lixo preto. Quando soube esta notícia, Bernarda ficou horrorizada e quis, imediatamente, dar um funeral decente à criança. Ela pensou, inclusive, que este poderia ter sido o seu bebé.
Quando tinha 16 anos, Bernarda foi estuprada e ficou grávida. Teve de criar o bebé sozinha. Ela questiona-se do porquê de as mães deixarem os seus filhos à deriva, quando ainda bebés.
As estatísticas oficiais revelam que cerca de 10 bebés são abandonados no lixo, no Chile, a cada ano, mas como as lixeiras não são abertas a
o público, pensa-se que talvez sejam mais do que nos é dado a conhecer.
O processo de adoção demorou muitos meses, devido a vários assuntos de labor burocrático. No Chile, se um corpo não é reclamado pela família, é considerado como um dejeto humano, que iria para o lixo, como qualquer outro objeto. Também era necessário que existissem provas de que o bebé chegou a sair do útero da mãe, para que pudesse ser considerado como um ser humano e fosse enterrado. Então, o corpo de Aurora teve de ser examinado.
É normal que os médicos digam que o bebé morreu no parto, para defender as mães. O aborto é ilegal no Chile, sejam quais forem as situações e se alguém é visto a abandonar o seu filho ou a deixá-lo no hospital, pode ser condenado até 5 anos de prisão.
Inicialmente, o juiz achou que Bernarda era a mãe biológica do bebé e que estava agora arrependida de o ter abandonado. No entanto, ela conseguiu convencer o juiz das suas boas intenções. Este comentou inclusive que nunca tinha conhecido um caso de adoção de uma criança morta no Chile. O juiz afirmou que a decisão de Bernarda era a melhor a tomar.
Passaram-se meses até que Bernarda pôde, finalmente, receber a guarda de Aurora para a enterrar. No funeral, 500 estavam presentes, que acompanharam a história desde o início, pelo jornal.
Eis que, no dia seguinte ao do enterro de Aurora, surgiu a notícia de que outro bebé tinha sido deitado para o lixo. Bernarda ficou triste e não acreditava que todo o seu esforço tinha ido em vão.
Porém, ela considerou em enterrar este bebé (que foi chamado de ''Manuel''), tal como fez com Aurora.
Ela começou por afixar cartazes nas lixeiras de Puerto Montt a dizer para ninguém deitar bebés para o lixo e relembrou que dois bebés foram encontrados no lixo num curto período de tempo.
Ela acha que, atualmente, as coisas estão mais diferentes, com informações mais acessíveis sobre abuso doméstico e mais conselhos sobre planejamento familiar.
Coincidentemente, a história da sua própria família também possui uma ligação com bebés abandonados (a sua bisavó foi encontrada na escada de um convento italiano). Bernarda quer que as mulheres chilenas que não possam cuidar dos seus filhos possam deixá-los em locais seguros para serem adotados. Ela sugere áreas com estas funções em hospitais.
Nos 12 anos que passaram desde o enterro de Aurora, Bernarda adotou e enterrou outras três crianças: Manuel, Victor e Cristobal. Atualmente, ela está a tentar fazer a mesma coisa com outra menina, Margarita. Ela quer dar-lhes "dignidade e um local para descansarem em paz".
A história de Bernarda inspirou um filme, ''Aurora'', do diretor chileno Rodrigo Sepulveda, que estreou no ano passado e recebeu vários prémios.
Adaptado de: noitesinistra
via @notiun
May 2nd 1844: Elijah McCoy bornOn this day in 1844, the inventor...
Elijah McCoy (1844 - 1929)
McCoy's patent for his steam engine lubricator
May 2nd 1844: Elijah McCoy born
On this day in 1844, the inventor Elijah McCoy was born in Ontario, Canada. McCoy’s parents were fugitive slaves from Kentucky who made their escape via the Underground Railroad. When he was three years old, the family returned to the United States and settled in Michigan. McCoy showed an early aptitude for mechanics, and was apprenticed to Scotland when he was fifteen, earning certification as a mechanical engineer. Despite his prodigious talents, McCoy struggled to find work in the face of racial discrimination, and ended taking a job as an oilman on the railroad. While working on trains he began designing inventions, and in 1872 invented a lubricating cup designed to distribute oil evenly over train engines. McCoy patented this design, which allowed trains to run for long periods of time without having to make maintenance stops. He continued to invent, ultimately receiving nearly sixty patents, which included an ironing board and lawn sprinkler. Other inventors attempted to mimic his machines, but companies demanded ‘the real McCoy’, thus coining the famous phrase. McCoy’s name did not appear on many of his products, but in 1920 he formed a manufacturing company bearing his name. In 1922, McCoy and his wife were in a car accident, killing his wife and critically injuring him. Having never fully recovered from his wounds, Elijah McCoy died in 1929 aged eighty-five, and remains one of the most accomplished black inventors in American history.
How the brain tells good from bad Eating a slice of chocolate...
How the brain tells good from bad
Eating a slice of chocolate cake or spending time with a friend usually stimulates positive feelings, while getting in a car accident or anticipating a difficult exam is more likely to generate a fearful or anxious response.
An almond-shaped brain structure called the amygdala is believed to be responsible for assigning these emotional reactions. Neuroscientists from MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have now identified two populations of neurons in the amygdala that process positive and negative emotions. These neurons then relay the information to other brain regions that initiate the appropriate behavioral response.
The study, which appears in the recent issue of Nature, represents a significant step in understanding how the brain assigns emotions to different experiences, says senior study author Kay Tye, the Whitehead Career Development Assistant Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.
“How do we tell if something is good or bad? Even though that seems like a very simple question, we really don’t know how that process works,” Tye says. “This study tells us that streams of information are hard-wired and are separated into good and bad at the level of the amygdala.”
The findings could also help scientists to better understand how mental illnesses such as depression arise, she says. Many psychiatric symptoms may reflect impairments in emotional processing. For example, people who are depressed do not find positive experiences rewarding, and people who suffer from addiction are not deterred by the negative outcomes of their behavior.
The good, the bad, and the amygdala
For many years neuroscientists viewed the amygdala — and in particular, a subregion known as the basolateral amygdala — as a processing center for fear. However, more recent studies, including work that Tye did as a graduate student at the University of California at San Francisco, have highlighted the importance of the amygdala in processing reward.
Those findings raised the question of how the same structure could respond to both positive and negative inputs and initiate the appropriate behavioral response. The neurons of the basolateral amygdala are intermingled, making it difficult to distinguish which populations might be involved in different functions.
Tye and colleagues suspected they might be able to distinguish populations of neurons that respond to different emotions based on their targets elsewhere in the brain. Previous studies had suggested that some of these neurons project to the nucleus accumbens, which plays a role in reward learning, while others send information to another part of the amygdala known as the centromedial amygdala.
To identify these populations, the researchers delivered green and red fluorescent microspheres called retrobeads to the target cells in the nucleus accumbens and centromedial amygdala, respectively. These spheres traveled backwards until they reached the neurons of the basolateral amygdala, clearly marking two distinct populations.
After labeling these neurons, the researchers analyzed amygdala activity as the mice learned either a fear-conditioning task or a reward task. In the fear-conditioning task, the mice learned to associate a tone with a foot shock, and in the reward task the tone was paired with a drink of sugary water.
The next day, the researchers measured the strength of the connections coming into the two populations, which carry sensory information to the amygdala. They found that basolateral amygdala neurons that connect to the nucleus accumbens receive stronger input after reward learning, but their inputs are weakened after fear learning. Neurons that connect to the centromedial amygdala show the opposite response.
The results suggest that these two populations essentially function as a gate for sensory information coming into the amygdala, Namburi says. “There are sensory inputs coming in to either of these populations, and once learning happens, you’re shifting the flood onto one population or the other,” he says.
The researchers then found that by shutting down the pathway to the fear circuit, they not only impaired fear learning, but also enhanced reward learning.
“This was exciting because it suggests that these populations engage in a push-pull interaction with each other, which makes sense as seeking rewards and avoiding threats are often behaviors that present opposing forces,” Tye says. “Just as you might expect someone to lose their appetite if gunshots were fired, the activation of the fear circuit could suppress reward-related behaviors.”
Sheena Josselyn, an associate professor of psychology and physiology at the University of Toronto, describes the paper as “a huge advance in our understanding of how the brain processes different emotions.”
“Everyone knows that we can learn about both positive and negative experiences, but it has never been shown how one structure can contribute to encoding two diametrically opposed emotional outcomes,” says Josselyn, who was not involved in the research. “This work showed that where each cell projects determines whether it encodes a positive or a negative memory. Just looking at the cell doesn’t reveal its identity, one must consider the cell in the context of a broader circuit.”
Distinguishing traits
Once the researchers defined the functions of each cell population, they set out to identify other distinguishing characteristics. They found only minor differences in shape and in the electrophysiological properties of the neurons, but they did detect some intriguing differences in gene expression. Some of the genes that were more active in one cell type than the other encode receptors that sit on cell surfaces and bind to incoming neurotransmitters, which help transmit sensory information to the amygdala.
The researchers are particularly interested in one of these receptors, which interacts with a small protein called neurotensin. This protein helps to regulate the cells’ response to glutamate, one of the major neurotransmitters required to strengthen connections between neurons. In follow-up studies, they are now investigating the role neurotensin may play in reward- and fear-learning in the amydgala.
“This represents a new paradigm for therapeutic development,” Tye says. “‘Circuit-based drug discovery’ relies on first identifying how different components of the circuit work and then identifying what targets might control them.”
Small But Not Mighty
Monaco has competed in the most Olympics (19 Summer, 9 Winter) without winning a medal
Information Via: http://ift.tt/19V5cyI On This Day in...
Information Via: http://ift.tt/19V5cyI On This Day in Psychology: A Showcase of Great Pioneers and Defining Moments.
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