men’s and women’s hand are different. Male index fingers are longer than their ring finger… and women’s ring and index fingers are roughly the same length
Here’s what we are reading today:
“Moreover, animals with the most varied diets showed the most self-restraint, according to the study published April 21 in the journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“The study levels the playing field on the question of animal intelligence,” said UC Berkeley psychologist Lucia Jacobs, a co-author of this study and of its precursor, a 2012 paper in the journal, Animal Cognition.”
“It’s a little-known fact that MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machines can show you the inside of an apple just as it can show you the insides of your brain.
MRI technologist Andy Ellison used his professional training and access to advanced medical technology to capture cross-sections of various types of fruits and vegetables just like he normally would a human brain. From corn to starfruit, Ellison left no organic matter untouched.”
“”The more we study the club of this tiny crustacean, the more we realize its structure could improve so many things we use every day,” said David Kisailus, a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Science and the Winston Chung Endowed Chair of Energy Innovation at the UC Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering.
The peacock mantis shrimp, or stomatopod, is a 4- to 6-inch-long rainbow-colored crustacean with a fist-like club that accelerates underwater faster than a 22-calibur bullet. Researchers, led by Kisailus, an associate professor of chemical engineering, are interested in the club because it can strike prey thousands of times without breaking.”
“Kazue Hasimoto-Torii, PhD, Principal Investigator of the Center for Neuroscience, Children’s National Health System, and a Scott-Gentle Foundation investigator, is lead author of the paper. Torii was previously at Yale, whose researchers were co-authors in the report. The research was funded primarily through National Institutes of Health grants.”
“People aren’t the only ones who raise their voices at each other; fish can shout, too. After catching some blacktail shiners—little minnows characterized by a big black splotch on their tail fin—fishery biologists placed them in tanks equipped with underwater speakers to see if noisy conditions affect communication. While females of Cyprinella venusta (pictured) don’t make noise, males produce two types of sound: growls and knocks. The growl is similar to a cat’s purr and is made when courting a female, while the knocks are more like popping sounds, typically made when males are fighting or defending their nests from another male.”
“Neurobiologist Margaret Livingstone of Harvard Medical School in Boston and her colleagues had already taught three rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) in the lab to associate the Arabic numbers 0 through 9 and 15 select letters with the values zero through 25. When given the choice between two symbols, monkeys reliably chose the larger to get a correspondingly larger number of droplets of water, apple juice, or orange soda as a reward. To test whether the monkeys could add these values, the researchers began giving them a choice between a sum and a single symbol rather than two single symbols. Within 4 months, the monkeys had learned how the task worked and were able to effectively add two symbols and compare the sum to a third, single symbol.”
“Reactive oxygen species are important intracellular signaling molecules, but their mode of action is complex: In low concentrations they regulate key aspects of cellular function and behavior, while at high concentrations they can cause “oxidative stress”, which damages organelles, membranes and DNA. To analyze how redox signaling unfolds in single cells and organelles in real-time, an innovative optical microscopy technique has been developed jointly by the teams of LMU Professor Martin Kerschensteiner and TUM Professor Thomas Misgeld, both investigators of the Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy).”
“New research published today out of the University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) uncovers a mechanism to promote growth in damaged nerve cells as a means to restore connections after injury. Dr. Doug Zochodne and his team have discovered a key molecule that directly regulates nerve cell growth in the damaged nervous system. His study was published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, with lead authors Drs. Kim Christie and Anand Krishnan.”
“Professor Richard Sharpe said: “There is increasing evidence that a mother’s diet, lifestyle and exposure to drugs and chemicals can have a significant impact ontestosterone levels in the womb. We need a better grasp of these factors so that we can give reliable advice to pregnant women to protect the health of her unborn child.””
11 Comments
oliviaeinbund · April 27, 2014 at 9:44 am
Testosterone in the womb: This article is important for two reasons. First, it suggests that men’s testosterone levels are determined even before birth. This means that diseases and behaviors linked with testosterone, such as obesity and aggression, may be simply fixed for men. Therefore, they have a scapegoat if they were to become overweight or overly hostile. The second reason is that further research can determine what a pregnant mother needs to do or change in order to protect her child. I think it is a topic worth investigation for the latter reason.
oliviaeinbund · April 27, 2014 at 9:45 am
Fruits and veggies under a scanner: These images were awesome! It not only helped me understand what MRI images look like, but also it was fun to guess what kind of fruit I was looking at before reading the title. I believe it is important to know what we are putting into our bodies. Here, we can see completely and thoroughly just what it is we consume daily!
shanpolley · April 30, 2014 at 6:13 pm
Fish can yell too: It makes sense that fish would have to “speak” louder in the presence of more noise, however I wonder if fish will eventually find other ways of communication if noise levels become too loud. Females don’t express the yelling ability at all, yet they still find ways to communicate and mate. It also makes me wonder if from an evolutionary standpoint fish will continually become “louder” due to louder males being able to court females or defend territory better.
shanpolley · May 1, 2014 at 8:28 am
stress and disorders: Our society is aware that drinking during pregnancy is highly frowned upon, however I had no idea that stress during pregnancy could also affect an unborn child just as much. Everyone faces stressors during their lives, and especially with an incoming new child I’m sure the mother and family are facing stressors getting ready for the new person in their lives. I think scientists should investigate ways to reduce this stress in expecting mothers, as that is whats most important to our future unborn generations.
s_carrico · May 2, 2014 at 7:56 pm
Stress and Disorders: I thought it was very interesting that these researchers found a specific gene, HSF1 that responds to environmental stimuli on the fetal brain. I knew that drugs and alcohol were detrimental to the fetus but I never new how, or the mechanism behind it. I thought it was particularly interesting as well that stem cells with schizophrenia were much more sensitive to external toxins!
krtomase · May 3, 2014 at 10:10 pm
Yelling fish: I was very surprised to find out that fish can yell as a means of communication. Though, it is disappointing that they must yell louder in response to industrialization and the building of bridges and cars. We are disturbing their natural habitat. I also find it interesting that females cannot make noise, and I will admit it kind of upsets the feminist in me. It seems like the males have an unfair advantage. I would be interested in learning more about further research and whether or not fish begin to become stressed or behave differently as a result of their louder environments. It makes me sad if that would be the case.
krtomase · May 3, 2014 at 10:22 pm
Fruits and veggies under a scanner: I loved looking at these images! It was fun trying to guess what fruit or veggie each image was before reading the label. I also showed some to my roommate and made her guess some too! Until now, I had no idea what and MRI image looked like, so this was really helpful. It is so cool that we can now scan fruits and veggies and really see what we are eating. It makes me wonder what other types of food would look like under an MRI.
hillarycho · May 5, 2014 at 7:12 pm
Fruits and Veggies under a scanner: It was cool to see these images under the scanner. They looked like how they would normally look if you were to cut them in halt, but the one that surprised me was the watermelon. It had really cool swirly patterns. I also noticed how symmetric all of the fruit were.
hillarycho · May 5, 2014 at 7:47 pm
size matters… or did you know that alread?: I wasn’t too surprised with the results of the article. Based on previous studies, it is common knowledge that primates are one of the smartest animals because of their brain sizes. We sort of see squirrels and rats as dumb, so seeing them lunge at the closed piece of glass was funny, but not surprising.
nfreche · May 17, 2014 at 9:40 pm
Size matters:
According to our textbook, brain size does not correlate with intelligence. This article, on the other hand, indicates that brain size is a factor with animal self control. Animals with the larger brain were capable of learning how to retrieve food, while smaller animals had difficulty or failed to do so. I did not find this a surprising fact, especially after reviewing the evolution of the human brain and comparing it to animals. The relative encephalitic quotient compares actual brain size to the expected brain size necessary for the body to function. This is a more appropriate method to use for behavioral date, rather than simple brain size as performed here. I’m curious if results would be skewed using this different method.
christinahenning · May 30, 2014 at 1:48 pm
testosterone in the womb: I love children and care a lot about the health of children, especially this that are unborn. I always knew testosterone was important in the development of males, but never knew low levels contributed to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. I feel like many of these disease are preventable and can be stopped if woman were more careful during their pregnancy.