Science

Lightning map USA, Canada – thunderstorms and lightning strikes. Optogenetics: Controlling the Brain with Light [Extended Version] Despite the enormous efforts of clinicians and researchers, our limited insight into psychiatric disease (the worldwide-leading cause of years of life lost to death or disability) hinders the search for cures and contributes to stigmatization.

Clearly, we need new answers in psychiatry. But as philosopher of science Karl Popper might have said, before we can find the answers, we need the power to ask new questions. In other words, we need new technology. Developing appropriate techniques is difficult, however, because the mammalian brain is beyond compare in its complexity. It is an intricate system in which tens of billions of intertwined neurons—with multitudinous distinct characteristics and wiring patterns—compute with precisely timed, millisecond-scale electrical signals, as well as with a rich diversity of biochemical messengers. Bursts Of Light Create Memories, Then Take Them Away.

Katherine Streeter for NPR You can't just open up a living brain and see the memories inside.

So Roberto Malinow, a brain scientist at the University of California, San Diego, has spent years trying to find other ways to understand how memories are made and lost. The research — right now being done in rats – should lead to a better understanding of human memory problems ranging from Alzheimer's to post-traumatic stress disorder. "People have wanted to know what is it that changes when you learn something and why do you lose memories and why do you sometimes have memories that persist too long like post-traumatic stress disorder," Malinow says. Malinow and a team of researchers thought they might be able to answer some of those questions by performing a high-tech variation on a classic memory experiment. "If you play the tone, the animal freezes," Malinow explains.

Malinow decided to use a cutting-edge technology called optogenetics to test this idea. Josh Johansen agrees. BBC Two - Orbit: Earth's Extraordinary Journey. An algorithm that finds face-like structures on the Earth's surface. Watch Intelligence Squared Debates Online. Infinity Imagined. All Non-Africans Part Neanderthal, Genetics Confirm. If your heritage is non-African, you are part Neanderthal, according to a new study in the July issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Discovery News has been reporting on human/Neanderthal interbreeding for some time now, so this latest research confirms earlier findings. Damian Labuda of the University of Montreal's Department of Pediatrics and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center conducted the study with his colleagues. They determined some of the human X chromosome originates from Neanderthals, but only in people of non-African heritage. "This confirms recent findings suggesting that the two populations interbred," Labuda was quoted as saying in a press release.

His team believes most, if not all, of the interbreeding took place in the Middle East, while modern humans were migrating out of Africa and spreading to other regions. The ancestors of Neanderthals left Africa about 400,000 to 800,000 years ago. Fast forward to 2010, when the Neanderthal genome was sequenced. Decoding Neanderthals. An Interactive Guide To The Fourier Transform. The Fourier Transform is one of deepest insights ever made.

Unfortunately, the meaning is buried within dense equations: Yikes. Rather than jumping into the symbols, let's experience the key idea firsthand. Here's a plain-English metaphor: What does the Fourier Transform do? Here's the "math English" version of the above: The Fourier Transform takes a time-based pattern, measures every possible cycle, and returns the overall "cycle recipe" (the strength, offset, & rotation speed for every cycle that was found). Time for the equations? If all goes well, we'll have an aha! This isn't a force-march through the equations, it's the casual stroll I wish I had. From Smoothie to Recipe A math transformation is a change of perspective. The Fourier Transform changes our perspective from consumer to producer, turning What did I see? In other words: given a smoothie, let's find the recipe.

Why? YouTube.