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Men and women can now thank a dozen brain regions for their romantic fervor.
Researchers have revealed the fonts of desire by comparing functional MRI studies of people who indicated they were experiencing passionate love, maternal love or unconditional love. Together, the regions release neurotransmitters and other chemicals in the brain and blood that prompt greater euphoric sensations such as attraction and pleasure. Conversely, psychiatrists might someday help individuals who become dangerously depressed after a heartbreak by adjusting those chemicals.
Passion also heightens several cognitive functions, as the brain regions and chemicals surge. “It’s all about how that network interacts,” says Stephanie Ortigue, an assistant professor of psychology at Syracuse University, who led the study. The cognitive functions, in turn, “are triggers that fully activate the love network.” Tell that to your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day.
Graphics by: James W. Lewis, West Virginia University (brain), and Jen Christiansen.
(via Scinerds)
Wonders of the Universe: Stardust
Spectroscopy of Stars. How to tell which stars are made of what.
Credit: BBC2
Plastic in Implantable Medical Devices is Not Suitable
Scientists have discovered a previously unrecognized way that degradation can occur in silicone-urethane plastics that are often considered for use in medical devices. Their study, published in ACS’ journal Macromolecules, could have implications for device manufacturers considering use of these plastics in the design of some implantable devices, including cardiac defibrillation leads.
Kimberly Chaffin, Marc Hillmyer, Frank Bates, from the Univ. of Minnesota, and colleagues explain that some implanted biomedical devices, such as pacemakers and defibrillators, have parts made of a plastic consisting of polyurethane and silicone. While these materials have been extensively studied for failure due to interaction with oxygen, no published study has looked at interaction with water as a potential failure mechanism in this class of materials.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/12/plastic-implantable-medical-devices-not-suitable
More stem cells plz.
Centella asiatica, commonly centella (Sinhala: ගොටුකොල, gotu kola in Sinhala, Mandukaparni in Sanskritमधुकपर्णी,Kannada (ಒಂದೆಲಗ). Tamil: வல்லாரை, vallarai in Tamil, Kodakan in Malayalam(കൊടകന്)), is a small, herbaceous, annual plant of the family Mackinlayaceae or subfamily Mackinlayoideae of family Apiaceae, and is native to India, Sri Lanka, northern Australia, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Melanesia, Papua New Guinea, and other parts of Asia. It is used as a medicinal herb in Ayurvedic medicine, traditional African medicine, and traditional Chinese medicine. Botanical synonyms include Hydrocotyle asiatica L. and Trisanthus cochinchinensis (Lour.).
Centella is a mild adaptogen, is mildly antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antiulcerogenic, anxiolytic, nervine and vulnerary, and can act as a cerebral tonic, a circulatory stimulant, and a diuretic.
Centella asiatica may be useful in the treatment of anxiety.
In Thailand, tisanes of the leaves are used as an afternoon stimulant. A decoction of juice from the leaves is thought to relieve hypertension. A poultice of the leaves is also used to treat open sores.
Richard Lucas claimed in a book published in 1966(second edition in 1979) that a subspecies “Hydrocotyle asiatica minor” allegedly from Sri Lanka also called fo ti tieng, contained a longevity factor called ‘youth Vitamin X’ said to be ‘a tonic for the brain and endocrine glands’ and maintained that extracts of the plant help circulation and skin problems. However according to medicinal herbalist Michael Moore, it appears that there is no such subspecies and no Vitamin X is known to exist.
Several scientific reports have documented Centella asiatica’s ability to aid wound healing which is responsible for its traditional use in leprosy. Upon treatment with Centella asiatica, maturation of the scar is stimulated by the production of type I collagen. The treatment also results in a marked decrease in inflammatory reaction and myofibroblast production.
The isolated steroids from the plant also have been used to treat leprosy. In addition, preliminary evidence suggests that it may have nootropic effects. Centella asiatica is used to revitalize the brain and nervous system, increase attention span and concentration, and combat aging. Centella asiatica also has antioxidant properties. It works for venous insufficiency. It is used in Thailand for opium detoxification.
Followers of Sri Sri Thakur Anukulchandra, commonly known as Satsangees, all over the world take one or two fresh leaves with plenty of water in the morning after morning rituals. This is prescribed by Sri Sri Thakur himself.
Many reports show the medicinal properties of C. asiatica extract in a wide range of disease conditions, such as diabetic microangiopathy, edema, venous hypertension, and venous insufficiency. The role of C. asiatica extract in the treatment of memory enhancement and other neurodegenerative disorders is also well documented. The first report concerning the antitumor property of C. asiatica extract was on its growth inhibitory effects on the development of solid and ascites tumors, which lead to increased life span of tumor-bearing mice. The authors also suggested the extract directly impeded the DNA synthesis. “In our study, C. asiatica extract showed an obvious dose dependent inhibition of cell proliferation in breast cancer cells.”
The Effects of Gotu Kola on the Brain
Traditionally, Gotu kola has been used as a brain tonic to support memory. It has been called a “brain food” and has been recommended for overstressed people, mood, to improve reflexes and to support feelings of calmness. Gotu kola has also been studied in humans and was found to have a positive influence on enhancing peripheral circulation.
Scientific research into Gotu kola extracts and its effects on the brain really only began in earnest in the past decade. In 2002, Gotu kola water extracts were administered to rats, where it improved their cognitive function in terms of learning and memory in a standard shuttle box avoidance and step through test. Brain levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), an indicator of overall oxidative stress, was reduced, and brain levels of the endogenous antioxidant glutathione were increased.
Oil and Water May Work Together After All
Water transforms into a previously unknown structure in between a liquid and a vapor when in contact with alcohol molecules containing long oily chains, according to Purdue Univ. researchers. However, around short oily chains, water is more ice-like.
Water plays a huge role in biological processes, from protein folding to membrane formation, and it could be that this transformation is useful in a way not yet understood, says Dor Ben-Amotz, the professor of chemistry who led the research. Ben-Amotz’s research team found that as they examined alcohols with increasingly long carbon chains, the transformation occurred at lower and lower temperatures.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/12/oil-and-water-may-work-together-after-all
LSD reaction on the human body - part 1 -
what is LSD :
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a semisynthetic product
of lysergic acid, a natural substance from the parasitic
rye fungus Claviceps purpurea. Albert Hofmann, a
natural products chemist at the Sandoz AG Pharmaceutical
Company (Basel, Switzerland) synthesized it in 1938
while searching for pharmacologically active derivatives
of lysergic acid. He accidentally discovered its dramatic
psychological effects in 1943. Though he synthesized
many lysergic acid derivatives, none had LSD’s unique
spectrum of psychological effects.Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide (INN) and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synesthesia, an altered sense of time and spiritual experiences, as well as for its key role in 1960s counterculture. It is used mainly as an entheogen, recreational drug, and as an agent in psychedelic therapy. LSD is non-addictive, is not known to cause brain damage, and has extremely low toxicity relative to dose, although in rare cases adverse psychiatric reactions such as anxiety or delusions are possible
"Richard Dawkins, John Maynard Smith, George Williams, Richard Lewontin, Niles Eldredge, and Stephen Jay Gould […] deal with a data set some three billion years out of date."
Lynn Margulis
Mercury’s Water Ice Bodes Well for Alien Life Search
The discovery of huge amounts of water ice and possible organic compounds on the heat-blasted planet Mercury suggests that the raw materials necessary for life as we know it may be common throughout the solar system, researchers say.
Image: The radar image of Mercury’s north polar region from Image 2.1 is shown superposed on a mosaic of MESSENGER images of the same area. All of the larger polar deposits are located on the floors or walls of impact craters. Deposits farther from the pole are seen to be concentrated on the north-facing sides of craters. Image released Nov. 28, 2012. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Arecibo Observatory
Mercury likely harbors between 100 billion and 1 trillion metric tons of water ice in permanently shadowed areas near its poles, scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Messenger spacecraft announced Thursday (Nov. 29).
Life on sun-scorched Mercury remains an extreme longshot, the researchers stressed, but the new results should still put a spring in the step of astrobiologists around the world.
“The more we examine the solar system, the more we realize it’s a soggy place,” Jim Green, the director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, said during a press conference today.
“And that’s really quite exciting, because that means the amount of water that we have here on Earth — that was not only inherent when it was originally formed but probably brought here — that water and other volatiles were brought to many other places in the solar system,” Green added. “So it really bodes well for us to continue on the exploration, following the water and its signs throughout the solar system.”
Horsehead Nebula Could Be Giant Petroleum Refinery
Molecules discovered in the Horsehead Nebula hint that the region may function as a kind of gigantic, natural petroleum refinery.
Observations made using the Institute for Millimetric Radio Astronomy’s (IRAM) 30-metre telescope have detected the presence of hydrocarbon molecule C3H+ in the Horsehead Nebula, which sits around 1,300 to 1,500 light years from Earth in the constellation of Orion.
Jérôme Pety and his team at the IRAM facility in the Spanish Sierra Nevada were surveying the nebula, a dense cloud of gases and dust, to discover more about its chemical content. Among the data they found unexpectedly high levels of the propynylidyne ion C3H+, which is one of the molecules that makes up oil and natural gas on Earth.
“We are seeing the operation of a natural refinery of petroleum on a giant scale,” said Pety of the results.
You can get an idea for just how giant the intergalactic hydrocarbon resource is thanks to astronomer Viviana Guzman, who adds that the nebula “contains 200 times more hydrocarbons than the total amount of water on Earth”.
The discovery of the molecule is evidence that a giant interstellar refinery exists within our galaxy, as C3H+ is created when polyaromatic hydrocarbons (commonly found in coal, tar and petroleum products) are broken down by radiation. In the case of the Horsehead Nebula, the nebula would provide the gas while nearby stars offer the required radiation.
World Of Science Chemistry Lab
NASA Innovator of Year Hunts for Extraterrestrial Amino Acids |
The hunt for the organic molecules that create proteins and enzymes critical for life here on Earth has largely happened in sophisticated terrestrial laboratories equipped with high-tech gadgetry needed to tease out their presence in space rocks and other extraterrestrial samples.
A technologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., now wants to take that search to the sources themselves.
Stephanie Getty, who recently was selected as Goddard’s Innovator of the Year for her trailblazing work in the area of advanced instrumentation, has won $1.2 million from NASA’s Astrobiology Science and Technology Instrument Development (ASTID) program to advance the Organics Analyzer for Sampling Icy Surfaces (OASIS). This miniaturized liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometer leverages technologies developed under previous Goddard-sponsored research and development efforts to study the chirality, or “handedness,” of amino acids on the icy moons of the outer planets, asteroids, and Kuiper Belt Objects.
“It’s like we’re packing up a well-equipped Earth lab and flying it to an asteroid or another solar system body, where we can get access to a pristine supply of these organic molecules to study,” Getty said, adding that by going to the source, scientists reduce the risk of contaminating samples with Earth-borne compounds. “With an instrument like OASIS, we could get that much closer to understanding how organic chemicals formed in the solar system, whether the potential for life exists elsewhere, and what may have seeded life here on Earth.”
And OASIS would carry out this science with 100 times greater sensitivity than what was possible with previously flown liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometers, she added. continue reading
In Space, Flames Behave in Ways Nobody Thought Possible
Recent tests aboard the International Space Station have shown that fire in space can be less predictable and potentially more lethal than it is on Earth. “There have been experiments,” says NASA aerospace engineer Dan Dietrich, “where we observed fires that we didn’t think could exist, but did.”
Image: A composite false-color image of fire in space. The bright yellow traces the path of a drop of fuel, shrinking as it burns, producing green soot Credit: Paul Ferkul / NASA
That fire continues to surprise us is itself surprising when you consider that combustion is likely humanity’s oldest chemistry experiment, consisting of just three basic ingredients: oxygen, heat and fuel.
Here on Earth, when a flame burns, it heats the surrounding atmosphere, causing the air to expand and become less dense. The pull of gravity draws colder, denser air down to the base of the flame, displacing the hot air, which rises. This convection process feeds fresh oxygen to the fire, which burns until it runs out of fuel. The upward flow of air is what gives a flame its teardrop shape and causes it to flicker.
But odd things happen in space, where gravity loses its grip on solids, liquids and gases. Without gravity, hot air expands but doesn’t move upward. The flame persists because of the diffusion of oxygen, with random oxygen molecules drifting into the fire. Absent the upward flow of hot air, fires in microgravity are dome-shaped or spherical—and sluggish, thanks to meager oxygen flow. “If you ignite a piece of paper in microgravity, the fire will just slowly creep along from one end to the other,” says Dietrich. “Astronauts are all very excited to do our experiments because space fires really do look quite alien.”
Such fires might appear eerily tranquil to people accustomed to the capricious nature of earthly flames. But a flame in microgravity can be more tenacious, capable of surviving on less oxygen and burning for longer periods of time.
![OB Association Stars
OB associations are groups of O and B stars that have dispersed to the extent that their mutual gravity no longer holds them together. Although they may be far apart, stars in an association share a common motion in space because they were formed from the same gas cloud. This allows astronomers to easily determine OB association membership stars.
Class O stars are very hot and extremely luminous, being bluish in color; in fact, most of their output is in the ultraviolet range. These are the rarest of all main-sequence stars. About 1 in 3,000,000 (0.00003%) of the main-sequence stars in the solar neighborhood are Class O stars.] Some of the most massive stars lie within this spectral class. Type-O stars are so hot as to have complicated surroundings which make measurement of their spectra difficult.
Class B stars are very luminous and blue. Their spectra have neutral helium, which are most prominent at the B2 subclass, and moderate hydrogen lines. Ionized metal lines include Mg II and Si II. As O and B stars are so powerful, they only live for a relatively short time, and thus they do not stray far from the area in which they were formed.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md6z7nGy571qbn5m1o1_r1_500.jpg)
OB associations are groups of O and B stars that have dispersed to the extent that their mutual gravity no longer holds them together. Although they may be far apart, stars in an association share a common motion in space because they were formed from the same gas cloud. This allows astronomers to easily determine OB association membership stars.
Class O stars are very hot and extremely luminous, being bluish in color; in fact, most of their output is in the ultraviolet range. These are the rarest of all main-sequence stars. About 1 in 3,000,000 (0.00003%) of the main-sequence stars in the solar neighborhood are Class O stars.] Some of the most massive stars lie within this spectral class. Type-O stars are so hot as to have complicated surroundings which make measurement of their spectra difficult.
Class B stars are very luminous and blue. Their spectra have neutral helium, which are most prominent at the B2 subclass, and moderate hydrogen lines. Ionized metal lines include Mg II and Si II. As O and B stars are so powerful, they only live for a relatively short time, and thus they do not stray far from the area in which they were formed.
