There is still so much we don't know about how our brain works, especially with regard to how memories are formed, how we are able to learn something new, and how our cognitive processes affect our emotions.

Recently, scientists have discovered the structure of a critical part in the brain, something they referred to as the "electrical switch" in the brain. These are the AMPA receptors.

"These are the fundamental electrical switches of the brain," said senior author Eric Gouaux, Ph.D., senior scientist and Jennifer and Bernard LaCroute Term Chair of neuroscience in the OHSU Vollum Institute and an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "If these switches don't work right, then the brain doesn't function. It can lead to seizures, memory loss, and neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer's disease."

These AMPA receptors play a critical role in keeping our brain functioning properly and when they start to decline, they may be linked to neurodegenerative diseases. So scientists want to compare the differences between healthy ones and damaged or compromised ones.

The new discovery comes by way of a technique that's revolutionizing the field of structural biology.

The ability to use cryo-EM vastly improves the scientists' ability to discern individual receptors in their true natural, or native, state. Cryo-EM enables scientists to see molecules in near-atomic detail.

(Image credit: OHSU)

The whole world erupted with excitement in anticipation of the first few images of an actual black hole and people took their reactions to the internet.

The guys at Interesting Engineering compiled a list of some of the interesting tweets from scientists like Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye. Read them here.

(Image credit: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration)

Most spinal cord injuries are believed to be permanent and irreversible. Not this time. Doctors Ren Xiaoping and Sergio Canavero claim that they were able to repair fully severed animal spinal cords.

From South China Morning Post:

Ren Xiaoping and Sergio Canavero said the new work they published in a scientific journal showed that monkeys and dogs were able to walk again after their spinal cords were “fully transected” during surgery and then put back together again. The neurosurgeons described the results as medically “unprecedented”.

The highly experimental procedures took place at Harbin Medical University in China. Both studies were supported by video evidence and published in Surgical Neurology International, a peer-reviewed medical journal based in the United States.

This concept, however, will raise ethical concerns. See the full story here.

(Image Credit: Ooom/ Canavero / South China Morning Post)

People sure say "it" a lot. We hear supercuts of different people saying the same things over and over, but when Eclectic Method does it, the result is a catchy song. There's a list of the people who appear in it, and the lyrics, at the YouTube page.  -via Geeks Are Sexy

The first reported sighting of a flying saucer was in 1947. The Air Force invited the public to contact them about sightings, and between 1952 and 1969, there were over 12,000 reports. Were they alien invaders, or could this be new Russian technology for spying on us? The Air Force sometimes tried to reassure frightened people that those saucers were classified military technology, but they were cagey about the details. There was some media coverage now and then about the Air Force's new Avrocar, which was a real flying saucer project. It was definitely top secret, since even the man behind it had an obviously made up name.    

It’s mastermind, Jack Frost, was bit of a legend. The British engineer had pioneered many supersonic aircraft designs, specifically what are called “vertical take-off and landing” (VTOL) vehicles that can hover, take off, and land vertically.. Most notably, he worked on fighter jets whose speed and agility earned nicknames like, “the Hornet” and “the Vampire”. So if anyone was going to cook up the next ferocious fighter aircraft, it was Frost…

Read about the Avrocar flying saucer project at Messy Nessy Chic.

As we saw recently with The Abominable Dr. Phibes, the film was so successful that it spawned an immediate sequel. This was also the case with Tales From the Crypt, which spawned The Vault of Horror, another horror film inspired by the EC comic of the same name and of the same style as its predecessor. EC horror comics were known for their sly albeit dark humor, and in this sequel we are treated to Glynis Johns and Terry-Thomas in the segment 'The Neat Job', wherein the obsessively neat Arthur Critchit (Terry-Thomas) marries Eleanor (Glynis Johns), a "young" trophy wife who is not quite the domestic goddess he hoped for. His constant nagging about the mess she makes eventually drives her mad. Upon his shouting at her, "Can't you do anything neatly?", she kills him with a hammer and cuts up the corpse, putting all the different organs into neatly labeled jars. Again, this film is an anthology and there are five independent segments, with poetic justice aplenty.

As was the case with its predecessor, this is NOT a film suitable for children.

(Image credit: u/OliverCarrol)

For an extra fee, you can pick your own letter/number combination for your license plate. People pony up to express themselves in odd ways. These plates can tell a joke about the car, or maybe a pun connected with the car's make and model.

(Image credit: u/SelectAll_Delete)

And some are just ominous.

(Image credit: u/blargsnarg)

See a voter-ranked gallery of 30 clever car plates at Bored Panda.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office in Oregon posted a 911 call and body cam footage of the Beaverton Police responding to a burglary call. Two men were housesitting, and when they came back from walking the dog, they heard noises in the bathroom, but the door was locked.

Just seven minutes later, law enforcement surrounded the callers' house. They waited outside the bathroom with a trained K-9 and heard banging from inside the room. Police told the Washington Post that the suspect might have forced a window open as a last ditch effort to escape.

Officers brought a dog in to take down the intruder, which turned out to be a diligent Roomba banging against the shower. The house sitters did not know the home had a programmable Roomba. A good laugh was had by all.    

Scientists who study astronauts and the effect of space flight on their bodies had found some odds things over the years. NASA had a unique opportunity to study long-term effects a few years ago when they used identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly to compare an astronaut's (Scott's) physical condition during and after a year on the International Space Station with his twin (Mark, who had retired) on earth. The comprehensive results of that study have been published in the magazine Science. The results are not pretty.

Scott’s immune system was generally turbulent during his year in space: Many of his immune-related cellular pathways were disrupted, including the adaptive immune system, innate immune response, and the natural killer-cells that protect the body from cancers like leukemia and viruses. (The result confirms a shocking study published in January that compared the immune systems of eight astronauts who completed spaceflights longer than six months with healthy adults on Earth: Just 90 days into their flights, the astronauts’ natural-killer cells were 50 percent less capable of fighting leukemia cells.) Scott’s cognitive function was also whacked: He got dumber on the ISS.

The human body is wonderfully adaptive, and almost all of these changes were transient: Scott returned to normal within six months of returning to Earth. He became his old self, except for the ordinary depredations of age. But some of the effects of spaceflight left their mark. Scott got dumber on the ISS, but he stayed dumber, too. The decline in the speed and accuracy of his mental functions persisted six months after his mission.  

The study has implications for possible long-term space journeys to places like Mars. Read highlights of the results of the twin study at Wired.  -via Metafilter

From the video:

Star Trek: Original Series Set Tour is Located in Historic downtown Ticonderoga, New York.

When the STAR TREK television series was canceled in 1969, the original sets were dismantled and largely destroyed, only a few small items of the actual sets remain today, and those that have survived are in private collections. Trek superfan James Cawley began the process of rebuilding the sets just as they would have been seen 50 years ago when the series was being filmed, a 14 year journey has culminated in the most accurate rebuild of the original sets, and is now open and welcoming STAR TREK fans from all over the world!

Our sets are complete recreations built using the original blueprints, hundreds of hours of serious research and thousands of photographs – both period images and images culled from extensive review and capture from the original episodes. The sets will NOT and were NOT designed to move from one city to another and are fully licensed by CBS Consumer Products. The Star Trek: Original Series Set Tour Invites you to come see the Desilu Studio as it looked during the years between 1966-1969 while Star Trek was in production.

Visit https://www.startrektour.com/ for more information.

I think I've seen every episode of Star Trek TNG (but none of the films) and don't recall ever even hearing about these things. How about you?

Bacon Strip Bandages

Boo-boos it is time to meat your match!

Now you can protect your wounds in a deliciously fun way with the Bacon Strip Bandages from the NeatoShop. Each tin comes with 15 bandages shaped and that look like your favorite cured and smoked pig product! 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great items. New items arriving weekly. 

Anyone who have experienced a long-haul flight knows how it can get to be a pain in the butt (literally!). You spend almost all of your time in that flight on your seat eating, drinking, sleeping, relaxing, chatting, or working. Long-haul flights can get boring, and even the expensive business class ones are no exception.

Enter Airbus’ new “Settee Corner” chair, offering couch-style airplane seating, with the usual business class features.

From CNN:

The new airplane seat premiered at the Aircraft Interiors Expo 2019 (AIX) in Hamburg, Germany, attracting buzz from passengers and airlines alike.

On these new seats, fliers can recline, lounge-style, just like on a couch at home. They can be joined by a traveling partner for an aperitif and to enjoy the in-flight entertainment.

And when it's time to sleep, they just lie down on the seat, no mechanisms needed.

Aside from promoting a more comfortable way of air travel, the new style also is 30-50% lighter than the traditional style.

Head over to CNN to see the full story!

(Image Credit: Airbus / CNN)

With the emergence and rising popularity of on-demand streaming sites, the nature of our consumption has transformed and with it, our habits, values, and perspective of the world have changed as well, influenced by how it is being presented on media.

The medium with which we get information and entertainment has become a ubiquitous part of our daily lives so much so that not only do we spend most of our time in it but also much of our socialization revolves around it.

Now, we are in the age of binge-watching and the mechanisms that had captured our attentions through the wonders of TV and movies have now become intensified with streaming sites offering us an unlimited number of shows with no interruptions.

It is now slowly shaping the way we behave - spending hours on end of late-night viewing to catch up on our favorite shows, even doing weeklong movie and TV marathons.

It also affects what type of content we consume preferring bite-sized information that we would use to make opinions and "informed" decisions.

As a response to this trend, a critical theory has been put forth on this binge culture that is gradually pervading all across the globe with giants like Netflix and Amazon.

What we consider to be “bingeing” changes—it’s not just about the number of episodes you watch; it’s about the choice of a single show. Netflix’s full TV season drops have created an insular flow:

“Rather than going back to the home page and making a deliberate choice… the post-play function takes us directly to the next episode. The ‘skip intro’ function even allows us to make the narrative flow feel more seamless.” Netflix tells us at every moment how to watch it.

All of these are designed to keep our attention fixated on our screens on an intensified level than TV or movie theaters could.

The authors offer some directives for further work. One of these is to question the extent to which binge-watching has impacted biopolitical production.

In its advertising campaigns, Netflix has made light of how sleep and the necessity to eat or leave your apartment can get in the way of your binge.

Horeck and colleagues point out how this colonization of sleep is a core tenet of the company’s business model. Netflix’s CEO in 2017: “We’re competing with sleep.”

The shifts have only started to affect our consumption habits but they are soon going to have a drastic impact not only on the entertainment and cultural spheres but they have the potential of influencing social, economic, and political spheres as well.

(Image credit: Victoria Heath/Unsplash)

We learn in elementary school that there are three states of matter — solid, liquid, and gas. Scientists have discovered a new phase of matter: one that is solid and liquid at the same time.

From National Geographic:

...a team has used a type of artificial intelligence to confirm the existence of a bizarre new state of matter, one in which potassium atoms exhibit properties of both a solid and a liquid at the same time. If you were somehow able to pull out a chunk of such material, it would probably look like a solid block leaking molten potassium that eventually all dissolved away.

“It would be like holding a sponge filled with water that starts dripping out, except the sponge is also made of water,” says study coauthor Andreas Hermann, a condensed matter physicist at the University of Edinburgh whose team describes the work this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

This state, called the chain-melt phase, join the group of other unusual states of matter.

(Image Credit: Screenshot from National Geographic.

Original Photo by Turtle Rock Scientific/ Science Source)