Wherever my daughter Karen moves, one thing always happens; the wreath on her front door always always attracts birds who build a nest! Amazing!
Here is what I am reading today:
“Their study, online in the Journal of Research in Personality, finds that although matrimony does not make people happier than they were when they were single, it appears to protect against normal declines in happiness during adulthood. “Our study suggests that people on average are happier than they would have been if they didn’t get married,” said Stevie C.Y. Yap, a researcher in MSU’s Department of Psychology.”
“Rats with spinal cord injuries and severe paralysis are now walking (and running) thanks to researchers at EPFL. Published in the June 1, 2012 issue of Science, the results show that a severed section of the spinal cord can make a comeback when its own innate intelligence and regenerative capacity—what lead author Grégoire Courtine of EPFL calls the “spinal brain”—is awakened. The study, begun five years ago at the University of Zurich, points to a profound change in our understanding of the central nervous system. It is yet unclear if similar rehabilitation techniques could work for humans, but the observed nerve growth hints at new methods for treating paralysis.”
“The study, by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and published in Accident Analysis and Prevention, analyzed Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration data from 350 older adult drivers ages 65-91 with a mean age of 74. The drivers were asked about self-reported incidents and state-reported crashes during a five-year period. They also were asked to rate their own driving abilities at year five. The study found that self-rated driving ability had no relationship with a previous history of adverse driving outcomes, such as crashes, other than receiving recommendations from physicians or friends to stop or limit driving.”
“In a study published in the May 31 issue of the journal Nature, Yale researchers found that a small, simple change in the mammalian genome was critical to the evolution of the corticospinal neural circuits. This circuitry directly connects the cerebral cortex, the conscious part of the human brain, with the brainstem and the spinal cord to make possible the fine, skilled movements necessary for functions such as tool use and speech. The evolutionary mechanisms that drive the formation of the corticospinal circuit, which is a mammalian-specific advance, had remained largely mysterious.
“What we found is a small genetic element that is part of the gene regulatory network directing neurons in the cerebral cortex to form the motor sensory circuits,” said Nenad Sestan, professor of neurobiology, researcher for the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, and senior author of the paper.”
“Researchers from Harvard University, The University of Texas at Austin and elsewhere have found evidence that the evolution of birds is the result of a drastic change in how dinosaurs developed. Scientists have long understood that modern birds descended from dinosaurs. Rather than take years to reach sexual maturity, as many dinosaurs did, birds sped up the clock — some species take as little as 12 weeks to mature — allowing them to retain the physical characteristics of baby dinosaurs.”
“”Flies and humans are distant from each other on the evolutionary tree, yet the same gene seems to be regulating a fundamental process in both organisms and affecting how soundly they sleep,” says senior author Subhabrata Sanyal, PhD, assistant professor of cell biology at Emory University School of Medicine.”
“The development of MyVoice was through a collaborative senior capstone project for engineering technology students (Anthony Tran, Jeffrey Seto, Omar Gonzalez and Alan Tran) and industrial design students (Rick Salinas, Sergio Aleman and Ya-Han Chen). “
13 Comments
kdevlugt · June 2, 2012 at 1:24 pm
I read about the device to translate sign language called MyVoice. It is an superb use of motion/image recognition technology. The advances that are being made in this area are truly remarkable, though often not as good as we’d like them to be. I remember the demo of XBox’s recognition software at TED was amazing, but got less than stellar reviews when it went to market. But I think the popularity the technology is garnering more research funding. Hopefully, someone will take up the MyVoice project now that these students have graduated. Too often I’ve seen amazing projects by Cal Poly students that are abandoned after the original group working on it have left. It sounds like in its current state, MyVoice takes some planning to set up, so its not convenient to use in everday conversation. However, in a couple iterations, I imagine it could be very portable and possibly integrate with smartphone tech.
corrieesmon · June 2, 2012 at 5:08 pm
I read the marriage and happiness article and it makes a lot of sense to me. I am surrounding by a bunch of people of my age or older who are either widowed and been widowed for along time, divorced or just have not found the right person and they all seem to be not as happy as me and others who are married. I just thought they were grumpy old people but they are just not happy with being single. I hope some day they find their happiness again.
corrieesmon · June 2, 2012 at 5:18 pm
I read the article about seniors don’t drive as well as they think they do. This is so true, My husband’s grandma drove until she was almost 88 years old, I was in the car with her one time and I had white knuckles she was switching lanes without looking, driving so slow I just knew someone was going to rear end us. When DMV sent her a renewal on her 88th birthday I convinced her she needed to give up her license. Thank God
corrieesmon · June 2, 2012 at 5:28 pm
Restless leg syndrome I am very interested in any studies about RLS, I believe I am showing signs of the disease and it is really a pain to deal with, Sometimes I am just sitting there and I get this awful feeling in my feet that makes me have to move them and stomp them and even at night this occurs. I hope they find something that will help RLS before it gets real bad fir me.
lrosener · June 2, 2012 at 6:03 pm
I read the marriage and happiness article. This article vaguely went over the link between marriage, happiness levels and personality. There was not a great deal of correlation, but I think an important thing to consider is that the unhappy marriages are not around because of divorces. Since there are less unhappy marriages then this creates a biased group of mainly happy marriages and could create skew in the data.
lrosener · June 2, 2012 at 6:12 pm
I read the rat spinal cord injury article. This article actually amazed me with what they had discovered. Not just the fact that the experimenters regrew CNS neurons, but the implications of this procedure if it can be generalized to other regions. The way I liked to understand what they did was that they jumped started the CNS like a car and after making it work with external cues the body regrew neurons. If this could be applied to any region the implications would be massive.
lrosener · June 2, 2012 at 6:21 pm
i read the tiny genetic variation article. this article was interesting because it found the origin or controlling gene that regulated a pivotal circuit for higher functioning in mammals, called the corticospinal neural circuits. the article mentioned that a small change lead to this great differentiation. I can see how this expands our knowledge of the genome but I don’t see how this will help expand the field in a productive way.
lrosener · June 2, 2012 at 6:34 pm
I read how dinosaurs impacted bird development. The article explained that birds were essentially juvenile dinosaurs. This made me think of how humans are essentially juvenile primates. The article also stated that birds have become the most adaptive land species on earth and humans are the dominant species on earth. This made me think that twice evolution has chosen the underdeveloped form of a species to survive. What is the adaptation of being a juvenile in this world. This can remind us all to stay young at heart spiritually and biologically.
lrosener · June 2, 2012 at 6:45 pm
I read the device to translate sign language article. This new device seems like a great advance for the deaf community, but I am wondering if they will except it. I know that the deaf community does not think highly of cochlear implants. Would this new device fall into the same category of always making deaf people change for the hearing community? If it is accepted though I think it would make it much easier for people to communicate with each other.
anguye15 · June 2, 2012 at 9:30 pm
Found the article regarding seniors and driving to be particularly entertaining, mostly because I began to think about my mom. Though she would not technically be considered a senior just yet (but approaching), the general subjects described in the study remind me of my mom. Nowadays, whenever I am in a car with her behind the wheel, I am super critical of little details and mannerisms that make me wonder how it is that she hasn’t gotten into more traffic accidents than she has (which actually isn’t much)–especially considering how we are from San Jose, where it is very urban and full of defensive and reckless drivers. I find myself very tense during these rides and can’t help but comment on her skills; however, she is quick to defend herself and attribute everything back to her experience and years of driving. I definitely think that she would very well rate herself higher than what her actual skill would be, just like the subjects of this study.
klovelace · June 4, 2012 at 2:54 pm
I read the article about restless leg syndrome in fruit flies. RLS is something i knew little about, and i found it interesting that we are able to study it both in humans and flies, two very different species. I didn’t know that RLS can also be effected by varying dopamine levels. The one part of this study I did not like was the use of the fruit flies, who suffered when they were diagnosed and even had a shorter life-span than those who didn’t have their genes altered. Hopefully all the studies that have been happening to learn more about our genes will help researchers learn how to help those with RLS.
LauraPolacci · June 6, 2012 at 8:45 am
After reading the article about marriage and happiness, I am not really surprised by any of the findings. I am curious, however, if those who did not get married and showed the gradual decline in happiness as they aged included people who were divorced or widowed? If so, I can understand why their happiness may decline, say if they were involved in a divorce they did not want to have or their spouse unexpectedly died. Either way, I think this article is short, sweet, and interesting!
LauraPolacci · June 6, 2012 at 8:59 am
After reading the article about seniors and their driving, it seems a little crazy that 49 of the 50 states in the US do not retest senior drivers, but rely on them to self-regulate their driving. I do agree that a lot of senior drivers are safe, but I also know that there are those who are not, and sometimes it’s scary to think that someone may simply renew their license by mail throughout their aging process, even though they may hardly know how to drive safely anymore. This article has encouraged me to talk with older family members about driving and their views about it. I know I joke with my mom about my grandparent’s driving, but instead of taking a joking approach I can be serious in my discussion about their driving. I also know that it’s a sensitive subject because giving up driving is losing a sense of independence, which would be so difficult.
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