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Good bacteria helps to defend your brain
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The microbes that live in your body outnumber your cells 10 to one. Recent studies suggest these tiny organisms help us digest food and maintain our immune system. Now, researchers have discovered yet another way microbes keep us healthy: They are needed for closing the blood-brain barrier, a molecular fence that shuts out pathogens and molecules that could harm the brain.
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6135 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Trippy mushrooms
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Users of magic mushrooms often report altered states of consciousness and a synesthesia-like melding of the senses. Now, scientists may have figured out why: Psilocybin changes the brain’s wiring, creating a hyperconnected brain that contains links between regions that don’t normally communicate with each other. Communication between brain networks in people given psilocybin (right) or a non-psychedelic compound (left). ...
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6004 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Terminator gators
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Red alligator eyes staring back at you may be unnerving, but there's nothing supernatural about it. The glow is caused when light reflects off a membrane in the eye called the tapetum, which helps nocturnal hunters such as alligators and crocodiles make the most of the limited light.
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13543 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
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duddy |
9 years ago |
Scibbles
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This pencil lamp leaves behind scribbles with its cord.
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18291 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
This turtle has a pig's nose
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This strange little guy is the aptly named pig-nosed turtle. Native to the Northern Territory in Australia and parts of New Guinea, it uses that odd, piggy snout just like a double-barrelled snorkel.
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9837 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Overcrowded forest leads to this
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This beautiful mosaic of leaves is caused by a mysterious natural phenomenon known as 'crown shyness'. Seen here in a cluster of Kapur trees in Malaysia, scientists suspect that it occurs when young shoots become sensitive to touch, and stop growing once they graze other leaves.
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4042 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Want to become a brain surgeon? Better get used to this
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Watch as a neurosurgeon opens up a patient's skull and clears the clotted blood from the surface of her brain. We probably don't have to tell you that this is extremely graphic footage, but - you've been warned.
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5415 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Beautiful art unearthed
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Three 2,000-year-old Greek mosaics have been unearthed on the Syrian border. They're said to be among the most extraordinary mosaics to survive from the ancient world.
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7281 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
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duddy |
9 years ago |
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7052 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
When's the best time to make a decision?
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You might think that it's better to be well-fed rather than starving when you're trying to make a big, life-changing decision, but new research suggests quite the opposite. According to a research study conducted by Utrecht University in the Netherlands, people who were hungry because of having fasted overnight perform better on a complex decision task than sated people. ( Click here to read the research). This provides a first piece of evidence that the hot state of hunger improves, rather than compromises, advantageous decision making. Their experimental evidence suggests that the "hot state of hunger promoted rather than compromised complex decisions with uncertain outcomes that are advantageous in the long run as hungry participants were ...
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7691 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Why do we listen to sad music?
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No one wants to be sad. So why do we love listening to sad songs so much? New research suggests that we're drawn to sad songs because they evoke mostly positive emotions, which is great for our mental health. According to the study published by the journal PLOS One, researchers found that "a wide range of complex and partially positive emotions, such as nostalgia, peacefulness, tenderness, transcendence, and wonder," were brought out in the participants that took part in the study by sad music. These are emotions are all healthy, feel-good emotions. The researchers concluded that "Music-evoked sadness plays a role in well-being, by providing consolation as well as regulating negative moods and emotions." Source: http://www.plosone.org/article ...
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5446 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Termite kings are puny
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The average termite queen will produce 30,000 eggs PER DAY. And considering these morbidly obese baby-making machines will often live till they're 20 years old, that means 219,000,000 eggs in single a lifetime.
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9911 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
This predatory worm found in Peru glows in the dark
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This glowing worm is the larvae of a species of click beetles, which belong to the family Eliteredae. Click beetles typically make a clicking motion to quickly escape predators. Of the 10,000 beetles identified, only 200 are bioluminescent. It is hypothesized that the beetle larvae glow green to lure prey such as ants and stick insets. When presented with these insects, the worms readily devoured them. While most beetles dine on flowers and other plant-matter, their larvae are mostly predatory. The insects wait with jaws open, and as soon as an ant or a termite flies in, their jaws clamp shut. Source: http://www.livescience.com/48790-photos-peruvian-glow-worm.html ...
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6131 |
duddy |
9 years ago |