From the beginning of time, black holes were scaring children. Now they are not so bad, they spread creation beyond the limits of individual galaxies.

 http://www.livescience.com/common/media/show/player.php?show_id=50 

The futuristic display uses no back lighting, just environmental light. Yet, it is capable of producing colors by using mechanical pixels and interference.

http://www.mirasoldisplays.com/index-mirasol-display-technology.php

...Speaking of iridescence, check out some of the bugs that shine based on the same principle of nature:
http://www.zuzafun.com/heaven-of-delight-with-buprestidae-beetles

Um, I predict people with iridescent skin going to clubs by 2012.

COP15 The United Nations Climate Change Conference



To be held in Copenhagen, Denmark (Dec 7-18 2009) – one of the greenest cities in the world – this conference is thought to be the last major chance the world has to decide on a concrete and effective plan for reducing carbon emissions. It’s also an amazing opportunity for humanity and the planet.

Goals of COP15
Issues coming into the conference may be varied and contentious. Yet, the goals are clear. The primary goal is to limit future carbon emissions and minimize the effects of climate change. In the process, the agreement will also fuel the transition to a sustainable green economy.

In 2012, the Kyoto Protocol to prevent climate change runs out. COP15 is the final chance for the world’s leaders to meet before the climate agreement needs to be renewed. What’s more, the protocol needs far more than a refresh. Since the conference in Kyoto, global carbon dioxide emissions have increased to a record 31.5 billion metric tons. That’s 40% above levels in 1990, the basis year for the treaty...

 http://hopenhagen.org/spreadhope 

(from wildcat's blog)


Building Brains: The Molecular Logic of Neural Circuits

http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?rID=29385&fID=1649

Memories are Made of This

http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?rID=29387&fID=1649

The Mesmerized Mind - Study of Hypnosis

“The motor cortex is connected to the idea that it cannot move the left hand, So even if you try to move, it will neglect to send signals to the motor execution areas.”

 http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/47697/title/The_Mesmerized_Mind 

"This week, we look at some radical ideas for transforming society and changing the way countries are run."



 http://www.newscientist.com/special/blueprint-for-a-better-world 

Young brains can forget painful memories, but old ones tend not to… Now an enzyme can cut through imprisoned memories…

"In the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Joel and Clementine's relationship ends so sourly that the couple elects to have their mutual memories swept away via a non-surgical procedure called "targeted memory erasure." No such tool actually exists. Even the most intense therapies can't completely erase troubling or fearful memories in adults. Yet, if two young rats fall in and out of love—or, more likely, have a close encounter with a subway car—permanent memory erasure may actually be possible, previous research has suggested. So, what happens in a growing rodent brain to cause this change?

A new study on mice uncovers some answers that could someday offer a potent target for eliminating the recurrence of bad memories in humans, especially known to those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"Fear memories are the most robust memories—they can last over a lifetime," says Nadine Gogolla, a biologist at Harvard University and lead author on the paper published today in the journal Science. "You can push them far back, but spontaneous recovery and relapses will happen." Until now, science has been unable to stop this process—in humans or in mice.

By repeating the previously reported rat findings, Gogolla and her colleagues found that at some point during a young mouse's development—between about 16 and 23 days postnatal—a molecular net of sorts is cast over a region of the brain called the amygdala, effectively crystallizing formerly malleable memories.

"It looks just like what you would expect from a fisherman's net," says Gogolla of the protein matrix under the microscope. "And it acts as a structural constraint on the cells. How it does that, nobody really knows." But the result is that memories are held inside.

What the researchers did learn was that by cutting that net—with an injection of an enzyme that digests the chains linking the matrix together—memories could be once again destabilized.

"The drug cuts the net into its pieces," Gogolla says, "just like when you cut the strings of a net and it falls apart." Then, for a couple weeks, the original youthful plasticity in the neuronal circuits of the amygdala is regained and any bad memory formed after the matrix digestion could be subsequently eliminated through "extinction" therapy, a common treatment during which a patient is presented with the original fear trigger but in a context that is not fearful. When the treatment was given after a mouse underwent fear conditioning, however, extinction was unable cut out that memory completely.

"Because the treatment has to occur before a traumatic event, it's hard to make it immediately available," notes Gogolla. "But it does help us in finding the underlying mechanisms." Eventually, she hopes tools can be found that can be applied after fear-inducing experiences, and that translate from mice to humans. This would be welcome relief for the approximately 20 percent of all military personel who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan reporting symptoms of
PTSD, not to mention for heartbroken couples."


http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=can-fearful-memories-be-erased-2009-09-03

Original work:
 http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/325/5945/1258 

Even though the brain contains about a trillion glia—10 times as many as there are neurons—the assumption was that those cells were nothing more than a passive support system. Glia, in fact, are busy multitaskers, guiding the brain’s development and sustaining it throughout our lives. Glia also listen carefully to their neighbors, and they speak in a chemical language of their own. Scientists do not yet understand that language, but experiments suggest that it is part of the neurological conversation that takes place as we learn and form new memories.

http://discovermagazine.com/2009/sep/19-dark-matter-of-the-human-brain

September 1, 2009 6:20 PM
Bye bye to the 100W bulb
Shanta Barley, reporter

Europeans bid farewell to the 100 watt bulbs today. From now on, Edison's brainchild can no longer be legally made in or imported into the European Union, thanks to a Union-wide ban which kicks off today.

Shed a tear, but don't let your sentimentality tempt you into smuggling one into the EU under your jumper: you'll be hit with a £5000 fine, according to The Daily Telegraph. That's the price for individuals caught transgressing the ban. Companies will face unlimited fines.

The EU hopes that the ban on incandescent light bulbs will force businesses and consumers to invest in low-carbon Light Emitting Diodes and Compact Fluorescent Lamps, which use up to 80 per cent less energy.

The ban could save the EU anywhere from 15 to 53 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, says Matt Prescott, founder of the Ban the Bulb campaign.

And the UK could save 2 to 5 million tonnes of the stuff, he says. Will it make a difference? You decide: the ban will cut Britain's yearly emissions of CO2 by - oh, about 0.643737355 per cent.

 http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/09/ban-on-old-fashioned-100-watt.html 

"Can surgery cure obesity?"
It does several more wonders, pointing to the activity of hunger hormone Ghrelin.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327241.100-full-without-food-can-surgery-cure-obesity.html

"Ghrelin plays a significant role in neurotrophy, particularly in the hippocampus, and is essential for cognitive adaptation to changing environments and the process of learning."

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghrelin