29 maio 2015
Saturn at Opposition
Telescopic observers on Earth have been treated to spectacular views of Saturn lately as the ringed planet reached its 2015 opposition on May 23 at 0200 UT. Of course opposition means opposite the Sun in Earth's sky. So near opposition Saturn is up all night, at its closest and brightest for the year. These sharp images taken within hours of the Sun-Earth-Saturn alignment also show the strong brightening of Saturn's rings known as the opposition surge or the Seeliger Effect. Directly illuminated, the ring's icy particles cast no shadows and strongly backscatter sunlight toward planet Earth, creating the dramatic surge in brightness. Saturn currently stands in the sky not far from bright Antares, alpha star of the constellation Scorpius.
from NASA http://ift.tt/1SFDkQR
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Banning legal highs: the biggest obstacle is the human...
Banning legal highs: the biggest obstacle is the human brain
New government plans to crack down on and ban “legal highs” have a lot of people confused and worried. For a start, the government is essentially planning to make legal highs illegal, and thus creating a logical paradox. Anything covered by the new laws would become illegal, so would not a “legal” high, so wouldn’t be covered by the laws after all, so would be legal. So they would be covered the laws, but then become illegal…
Ironically, this sort of thinking will probably only make sense when you’re stoned out of your mind.
Thankfully (for a given value of “thankful”) the proposed legislation is a bit more detailed than this, in that it promises to ban trade in any substances for human consumption that is capable of producing a psychoactive effect. It has also been made clear that things such as coffee, food, alcohol etc. wouldn’t be included. Similar policies in Ireland and Poland also clarify that the psychoactive effect has to be “significant”, to prevent more common “everyday” substances being affected.
While more detailed, there are still several issues with this approach. Firstly, “psychoactive” basically means any substance that affects brain function and can alter perception, consciousness, mood, things like that. Anything that affects the mind, to be succinct. Trouble is, this isn’t exactly a hard thing to do. The human brain is so active and flexible that practically anything can “alter brain function”. Reading a particularly provocative or illuminating newspaper article can be said to alter your mood and/or perception. Propaganda is based on processes like this.
We could be generous and say the law applies specifically to consumable substances which alter brain function “artificially” (another tricky term when you consider the workings of the brain). This is still problematic, because if you’re not specifying the specific substance (as the proposed law doesn’t) then countless things can have a “psychoactive” effect like this. Some well prepared food can do it, which that scene in Ratatouille demonstrates nicely.
The issue of “significant” psychoactive effects is another problem. How do you measure whether something is significant? What’s the cut-off point between significant and non-significant in a scenario like this? We’re talking legal ramifications here, where the distinction could mean the difference between breaking the law and not, so this should really be specified. How to do that though is a big problem, because response to psychoactive substances can vary massively between individuals.
Most people will have seen examples of this; there’s always someone you know with an incredible tolerance for alcohol, who can drink constantly and heavily throughout the night, but the only consequences they demonstrate are a slight reddening of the face and more regular toilet visits. In contrast, there are those people who struggle to walk or put sentences together if they’re so much as in the room when someone opens a bottle of wine. And this is just alcohol, an incredibly-common substance. How much harder is it going to be to work out how much is “too much” when we’re dealing with an essentially new compound?
Alcohol consumption can be analysed directly by breathalysers, but how do you measure the psychoactive effects of a novel substance? The mind is incredibly difficult to measure, so much so that some sciences have to ignore it altogether to get anything done. So how is law enforcement meant to manage it? It’s difficult to imagine a policemen pulling someone over and saying “Sir, please step out of the vehicle and think into this tube”, or “It appears your mental state is significantly different to the norm, you’ll have to come with us”.
But these things would have to happen if we were to get a logical, consistent and effective system for controlling legal highs. But then, logic and effectiveness have never really been a big part of drug enforcement policy, and with crackdowns already happening it seems this will remain the case for some time.
Obviously there are health concerns to consider, and in fairness most legal highs that have been targeted thus far seem designed to mimic the effects of known illegal narcotics, but the advances in science and the complexity of the brain will only serve to make this area incredibly problematic as we go on.
One easy solution does present itself: ban dopamine! Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, so is a chemical substance like most drugs, and it certainly has a psychoactive effect in that it enables the sensations of pleasure and reward in the brain, which are behind most drug sensations and addictions. Banning dopamine would be a sure-fire way of stopping legal highs, effectively rendering them all pointless. Granted, dopamine has many other crucial functions, but sacrifices have to be made in the war against drugs.
However, other neurotransmitters and hormones like oxytocin and serotonin can also chemically induce pleasure, and there is mounting evidence that others are involved in drug effects too. Using the same “everything is banned unless we say otherwise” approach of the new regulations on legal highs, it would be best to ban all neurotransmitters just in case they’re used to induce psychoactive effects. And they would be, because that’s technically what they’re for. So we’d end up with a population unable to use their brains.
Seems like an ideal arrangement for the government, if we’re honest.
Finding “lost” memories Using optogenetics to reactivate...
Finding “lost” memories
Using optogenetics to reactivate memories that could not otherwise be retrieved.
Memories that have been “lost” as a result of amnesia can be recalled by activating brain cells with light.
In a paper published today in the journal Science, researchers at MIT reveal that they were able to reactivate memories that could not otherwise be retrieved, using a technology known as optogenetics.
The finding answers a fiercely debated question in neuroscience as to the nature of amnesia, according to Susumu Tonegawa, the Picower Professor in MIT’s Department of Biology and director of the RIKEN-MIT Center at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, who directed the research by lead authors Tomas Ryan, Dheeraj Roy, and Michelle Pignatelli.
Neuroscience researchers have for many years debated whether retrograde amnesia — which follows traumatic injury, stress, or diseases such as Alzheimer’s — is caused by damage to specific brain cells, meaning a memory cannot be stored, or if access to that memory is somehow blocked, preventing its recall.
“The majority of researchers have favored the storage theory, but we have shown in this paper that this majority theory is probably wrong,” Tonegawa says. “Amnesia is a problem of retrieval impairment.”
Memory researchers have previously speculated that somewhere in the brain network is a population of neurons that are activated during the process of acquiring a memory, causing enduring physical or chemical changes.
If these groups of neurons are subsequently reactivated by a trigger such as a particular sight or smell, for example, the entire memory is recalled. These neurons are known as “memory engram cells.”
Shedding light
In 2012 Tonegawa’s group used optogenetics — in which proteins are added to neurons to allow them to be activated with light — to demonstrate for the first time that such a population of neurons does indeed exist in an area of the brain called the hippocampus.
However, until now no one has been able to show that these groups of neurons do undergo enduring chemical changes, in a process known as memory consolidation. One such change, known as “long-term potentiation” (LTP), involves the strengthening of synapses, the structures that allow groups of neurons to send signals to each other, as a result of learning and experience.
To find out if these chemical changes do indeed take place, the researchers first identified a group of engram cells in the hippocampus that, when activated using optogenetic tools, were able to express a memory.
When they then recorded the activity of this particular group of cells, they found that the synapses connecting them had been strengthened. “We were able to demonstrate for the first time that these specific cells — a small group of cells in the hippocampus — had undergone this augmentation of synaptic strength,” Tonegawa says.
The researchers then attempted to discover what happens to memories without this consolidation process. By administering a compound called anisomycin, which blocks protein synthesis within neurons, immediately after mice had formed a new memory, the researchers were able to prevent the synapses from strengthening.
When they returned one day later and attempted to reactivate the memory using an emotional trigger, they could find no trace of it. “So even though the engram cells are there, without protein synthesis those cell synapses are not strengthened, and the memory is lost,” Tonegawa says.
But startlingly, when the researchers then reactivated the protein synthesis-blocked engram cells using optogenetic tools, they found that the mice exhibited all the signs of recalling the memory in full.
“If you test memory recall with natural recall triggers in an anisomycin-treated animal, it will be amnesiac, you cannot induce memory recall,” Tonegawa says. “But if you go directly to the putative engram-bearing cells and activate them with light, you can restore the memory, despite the fact that there has been no LTP.”
“Groundbreaking paper”
Further studies carried out by Tonegawa’s group demonstrated that memories are stored not in synapses strengthened by protein synthesis in individual engram cells, but in a circuit, or “pathway” of multiple groups of engram cells and the connections between them.
“We are proposing a new concept, in which there is an engram cell ensemble pathway, or circuit, for each memory,” he says. “This circuit encompasses multiple brain areas and the engram cell ensembles in these areas are connected specifically for a particular memory.”
The research dissociates the mechanisms used in memory storage from those of memory retrieval, according to Ryan. “The strengthening of engram synapses is crucial for the brain’s ability to access or retrieve those specific memories, while the connectivity pathways between engram cells allows the encoding and storage of the memory information itself,” he says.
Changes in synaptic strength and in spine properties have long been associated with learning and memory, according to Alcino Silva, director of the Integrative Center for Learning and Memory at the University of California at Los Angeles. “This groundbreaking paper suggests that these changes may not be as critical for memory as once thought, since under certain conditions, it seems to be possible to disrupt these changes and still preserve memory,” he says. “Instead, it appears that these changes may be needed for memory retrieval, a mysterious process that has so far evaded neuroscientists.”
fuckyeahfluiddynamics: Like humans, plants can spread pathogens...
Like humans, plants can spread pathogens to one another. Although scientists had observed correlations between rainfall and the spread of diseases among plants, this study is one of the first to look at the fluid dynamics of leaf and rainfall interaction. When a raindrop hits a leaf, it doesn’t simply splash as it would against an immobile surface. The impact of the drop deforms the leaf, and the plant’s rebound significantly affects the trajectory and size of the resulting droplets. Depending on factors like the leaf’s stiffness, a large drop, carrying many pathogens, may rebound and splatter onto a neighboring leaf. Other leaves tend to catapult out many smaller droplets, which may fly farther afield but carry fewer pathogens. For more, check out the press release or the original research paper. (Video credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology; research credit: Bourouiba Research Group)
sun & moon, photographed by sdo, 30th january 2014.an...
sun & moon, photographed by sdo, 30th january 2014.
an eclipse of the sun by the moon visible only from sdo, created by the alignment of their orbits. and, for good measure, a solar flare (left).
this sequence of 28 frames (photographed over 7 hours) combines images of two wavelengths, for reasons that i no longer clearly recall. this idiosyncratic postprocessing has, however, revealed some interesting textures of the image sensor.
image credit: nasa/sdo, aia/eve/hmi. animation: ageofdestruction.
ageneuromorphogenesis: Dream On: Why Sleep is So Important This...
Dream On: Why Sleep is So Important
This infographic showcases some studies on just how dangerous—and costly—sacrificing sleep can be, and it concludes with some facts on how you can try and improve your sleep quality if it’s something you struggle with.
Dream On: Why Sleep is So Important This infographic showcases...
Dream On: Why Sleep is So Important
This infographic showcases some studies on just how dangerous—and costly—sacrificing sleep can be, and it concludes with some facts on how you can try and improve your sleep quality if it’s something you struggle with.
Traga seu amor de volta com essa simpatia de reconciliação para Santo Antonio
O Santo Antonio é aquele para quem recorremos quando temos problemas de relacionamento ou queremos um novo amor. Seu casamento está em crise ou seu parceiro a deixou? Que tal aproveitar a semana do dia 13 de junho para fazer uma simpatia de reconciliação para Santo Antonio? A dica é da Solange, especialista do Astrocentro!
Essa simpatia de reconciliação para Santo Antonio deve ser feita na semana da data do santo, ou seja, perto do dia 13 de junho.
Acenda uma vela de sete dias cor de rosa, tome um banho com pétalas de rosa da mesma cor e coloque uma roupa de cor clara, como se estivesse esperando o seu parceiro chegar em casa.
Para o banho, ferva um litro de água com as pétalas de uma rosa cor de rosa por cerca de 15 minutos. Deixe mornar e jogue do pescoço para baixo. Não enxague e não esfregue a toalha depois.
Depois desse ritual, vá até a vela e faça essa oração:
Oração Poderosa para Reconciliação e União Fiel
(...) diga aqui nome do pretendente.
Faça o Sinal da Cruz
Meu Santo Antonio, que cuida da felicidade humana, no amor.
Eu te rogo que faça (....) voltar a me amar profundamente e que chegue até mim como as ervas do campo chegam aos pés da cruz.
Tudo que tiver me dará, nada me negará, tudo que souber me contará, nada me esconderá, trabalhando e me sustentando e me amará para sempre.
Que(....)não possa comer, não possa beber, não possa dormir, não possa ter sossego em parte alguma do mundo, e com ninguém, enquanto comigo não falar e se reconciliar, enquanto não telefonar.
Com a tua ajuda á tudo que conto, meu Santo Antonio, porque sofro muito.
Por estar sem falar com (...) Atenda-me com a bênção de Deus.
Assim seja, assim será, assim será, assim está feito e jamais será desfeito e que ele (...) me entenda e me espere para vivermos juntos, amém.
Meu Santo Antonio quero noticias de (....) ainda hoje.
Amém!!! graças Santo Antonio Rogai por nós que amamos com vós!!!
Que(....)não possa comer, não possa beber, não possa dormir, não possa ter sossego em parte alguma do mundo, e com ninguém, enquanto comigo não falar e se reconciliar, enquanto não telefonar.
Com a tua ajuda á tudo que conto, meu Santo Antonio, porque sofro muito.
Por estar sem falar com (...) Atenda-me com a bênção de Deus.
Assim seja, assim será, assim será, assim está feito e jamais será desfeito e que ele (...) me entenda e me espere para vivermos juntos, amém.
Meu Santo Antonio quero noticias de (....) ainda hoje.
Amém!!! graças Santo Antonio Rogai por nós que amamos com vós!!!
Faça essa simpatia de reconciliação para Santo Antonio com muita fé e veja seu amado voltar logo para casa!
Veja também:
Esotérica ensina a simpatia para amor voltar
A Condessa de Desmond
Era filha de Sir John FitzGerald, o segundo Senhor de Decies, no condado de Waterford, na Irlanda e de Ellen Fitzgibbon. Julga-se que tenha nascido por volta de 1500. Nem mesmo o seu local de origem é conhecido, embora se afirme que tenha sido em Dromana. Em 1529, ela casou-se com Thomas FitzGerald, 11º Conde de Desmond, sendo que se tornou na sua segunda esposa. Tiveram uma filha, também chamada Katherine e após a morte do seu marido, em 1534, a Condessa permaneceu solteira.
Durante a sua vida de casada, o seu marido concedeu-lhe uma habitação no Castelo de Inchiquin, em Munster. O interesse final era em passar os títulos das possessões para os Condes de Desmond, após a morte de Katherine. No entanto, em 1575, ela ainda estava viva, mas passou, ainda assim, os títulos para os respetivos proprietários, como tinha sido regido.Depois do confisco de bens do conde, posteriormente, em 1582, pelo que as suas propriedades foram obtidas pela Coroa, após a Rebelião dos Desmond, que terminou em 1583, o Castelo de Inchiquin e outras terras foram dadas a Sir Walter Raleigh, colono de New England. Ele arrendava terras e propriedades e mostrava um certo interesse na idade avançada da Condessa, afirmando que ela morreria de velhice em pouco tempo. Acontece que ela viveu para lá das espetativas de Raleigh. Sir Richard Boyle, o primeiro Conde de Cork, comprou as propriedades coloniais de Raleigh na Irlanda, incluindo o título do Castelo.
Depois de toda esta "batalha de confiscos", diz-se que a Condessa partiu de Cork em 1604 (por esta altura, ela teria por volta de 104 anos de idade, algo que não era normal naquela época (e que, ainda hoje, é bastante raro)). Existe uma lenda que afirma que ela chegou a Bristol, no Reino Unido, acompanhada da sua filha de 90 anos, mas no século XIX, descobriu-se que esta lenda surgiu de uma confusão com outra condessa de Desmond, que também era viúva e viajou até Londres.
De acordo com os relatos, todas as semanas, Katherine passeava até à cidade dos mercadores (que na época, eram abundantes pela Europa), que ficava a uma distância de cerca de 8000 metros do local onde ela vivia. Ela fazia essa rotina semanal mesmo após o seu regresso do Reino Unido em 1604. Afirma-se também que todos os seus dentes tinham sido renovados num curto período de tempo, provavelmente, num ano ou dois. Segundo consta, Katherine morreu em 1604 devido aos ferimentos causados ao ter caído de uma árvore.
Em "History of the World", Raleigh refere que Katherine casou durante o reinado de Eduardo IV de Inglaterra (1461-1483), levando a acreditar que ela tinha, pelo menos, 135 anos quando morreu. No entanto, julga-se que ela não podia ter casado numa data inferior a 1505, visto que a primeira esposa do seu marido ainda era viva nesse ano. Existe uma tradição que refere que Katherine faleceu aos 140 anos de idade e essa é contada nos livros "Itinerary" de Fynes Moryson e "History of Life", de Sir Francis Bacon. John Harington, escreveu em 1605 que um homem viveu por mais de 140 anos e uma condessa que viveu até aos 120. Se Katherine se casou nos seus vintes, esta última idade adequar-se-à realmente a ela.
Adaptado de: wikipédia (en)
via @notiun
Aprenda a Oração de Santo Antonio Casamenteiro
Dia 13 de junho é dia de Santo Antônio e é a data em que muitas mulheres realizam simpatias, rituais e orações para o santo casamenteiro. Se você quer encontrar um novo amor, é para ele que deve pedir. Se possível, compre uma imagem de Santo Antonio e coloque em seu altar, então, com muita fé e esperança, faça essa oração para encontrar namorado.
Oração de Santo Antonio Casamenteiro
“Meu grande amigo Santo Antônio, tu que és o protetor dos namorados, olha para mim, para a minha vida, para os meus anseios. Defende-me dos perigos, afasta de mim os fracassos, as desilusões, os desencantos. Faz que eu seja realista, confiante, digna(a) e alegre. Que eu encontre um namorado que me agrade, seja trabalhador, virtuoso e responsável. Que eu saiba caminhar para o futuro e para a vida a dois com as disposições de quem recebeu de Deus uma vocação sagrada e um dever social. Que meu namoro seja feliz e meu amor sem medidas. Que todos os namorados busquem a mútua compreensão, a comunhão de vida e o crescimento na fé. Assim seja.”
Se você estiver pensando em casamento, seu pedido deve ser mais focado. Imagine o seu futuro e que tipo de marido gostaria de ter ao seu lado. Visualize seu relacionamento durando até os dois envelhecerem e faça essa oração de Santo Antonio casamenteiro:
“Santo Antônio, eu sei que o casamento é uma vocação abençoada por Deus. É o sacramento do amor, comparado ao amor que Cristo tem para com a Igreja. Eu me sinto chamada para o casamento: por isto, Santo Antonio, ajuda-me a encontrar um namorado bom, amável, sério e sincero, que tenha os mesmos sentimentos de afeto que eu sinto. Faze que nos completemos um ao outro e formemos uma união abençoada por Deus, para que nós dois, juntos, sejamos capazes de vencer possíveis problemas familiares e conservemos sempre vivo o nosso amor, para que nunca falte a compreensão e a harmonia familiar. Santo Antonio, abençoa-nos a mim e a meu namorado; acompanha-nos até o altar e conserva-nos unidos pelo resto da nossa vida. Santo Antonio, rogai por nós.”
Tenha fé e esperança que você vai encontrar o seu amor, mas antes de tudo, ame a si mesmo. Cuide de si e de quem a rodeia e seu caminho se abrirá a novos relacionamentos!
Leia também:
- Simpatia de reconciliação para Santo Antonio (V15-95)
Aprenda o banho para atrair amor
Another great cartoon by John Atkinson via...
Another great cartoon by John Atkinson via http://ift.tt/Lj9LRR
GO HERE –> bit.ly/PsychCartoons to see some brilliant psych cartoons!
Hubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way
humanoidhistory: Happy birthday to President John F. Kennedy,...
Happy birthday to President John F. Kennedy, born on May 28, 1917. Seen here in his posthumous official portrait by Aaron Shikler.
The first president to be born outside the original 13 states was Lincoln.
The first president to be born outside the original 13 states was Lincoln.
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