This week: Bacteria anticipate the seasons! Placebos activate the same neurons as anesthesia! And don’t touch radio towers with hot dogs.
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First of all, over at Asimov Press, we’ve wrapped up a special mini-issue on pandemics and biotechnology. In personal news, I just bought a house. Sure, the interest rate is an appalling 6.685%, but I’m excited to do science experiments and film videos in my kitchen. I’ll share those with you soon!
If you can’t access any of the papers I link to, please send me an email and I’ll do my utmost to fetch you a copy.
Science Experiments
Drugs and placebos share a "common mechanism of action." Scientists stimulated neurons in the amygdala of mice when the animals entered a chamber. Those mice learned to associate the chamber with pain relief, even after the neural stimulations were halted. Those same neurons also happen to be activated by anesthetic drugs.
This robot is controlled by a fungus. The fungus' mycelia senses the environment and emits "action potential–like spiking voltages" to control the motors and valves, thus moving the machine. “What is your p(Shroom)?”
E. coli that have more flagella — or whip-like tails — tend to swim faster, but there is a drop-off in speed if they have too many flagella. A new mathematical model explains why.
Bacteria anticipate the seasons. Cyanobacteria exposed to shorter days (in the lab) "rewire" their membrane lipids to anticipate cold weather. When those cells are plunged into cold water, they have "two or three-times higher survival" than cells exposed to longer days.
A common food dye found in Doritos (called tartrazine) turns mouse skin transparent, revealing the organs inside. The dye increases the refractive index of water in the skin to more closely resemble lipids, thus reducing the scattering of light and allowing photons to penetrate more deeply.
Coughing and sneezing are controlled by two different populations of sensory neurons in the nose. If we could make a drug that blocks just the sneezing-related neurons, could we….cure sneezing?
A protein called TRPV1 detects changes in body temperature. Inhibiting TRPV1 in human skin reduces the pain one feels at high temperatures.
Science Elsewhere
Vaccines have saved 150 million children over the last 50 years. Now that’s progress!
I recently learned that proteins are depicted as "ribbon-like" structures — with alpha helices as spirals and beta-sheets as colorful arrows — because of Jane Richardson, a professor of biochemistry at Duke University. In 1981, Richardson hand-drew and -colored proteins for a research paper. After that study was published, others in the protein science field adopted her style. Everything man-made in this world, including things we take for granted, was made by another human; many of whom are forgotten.
A company called Osmo is trying to “understand and digitize smell,” such that any scent can be re-created from its molecular ingredients.
Just for Fun
Touching a hot dog to a radio tower turns the meat into a speaker. Tempting!
Rocco Buttliere is building a miniature replica of ancient Rome…out of LEGOs. This first section is made from more than 100,000 pieces and took him more than 600 hours of work. Now I can’t stop thinking about Ancient Rome!
Dynamicland, a non-profit research lab, just launched their whimsical new website. They’re building technologies that help “real people, in the real world, to explore ideas together not just with words and pictures, but also computation.” It’s brilliant (and difficult to describe succinctly!). Watch the introductory video.
An AI could never write like me! I am so witty and unique! Right?
One man’s quest to map the more than 20,000 ships that sank during World War II.
Thanks for reading and see you next time <3
— Niko