:)

You guys aren’t going to believe this. Homer Simpson– yes, THE Homer Simpson that is well known for his comedic stupidity– predicted the mass of the Higgs Boson 14 years before CERN. You know what this means. Homer Simpson is smarter than all of us.

A new book investigating the maths in The Simpsons has uncovered that in the 1998 episode called “The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace”, Homer comes up with a mathematical equation that predicts the mass of the Higgs boson– more than a decade before physicists at CERN discovered it. W h a t. 

I bet we’re all asking the same question right now: Why?? Basically in this episode, Homer becomes an inventor, coming up with devices such as an electric hammer. In the process, he lets his hidden mathematical ability out, predicting the mass of the Higgs boson to be 775 giga-electron-volts. The author of The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets, Simon Singh, says that figure isn’t actually that far off the 125 GeV estimate that was the result of the CERN Higgs boson discovery in the year 2012.

“The equation is a playful combination of various fundamental parameters, namely the Planck constant, the gravitational constant, and the speed of light,” Singh told him.

Looks like its time to take the underdog a lot more seriously, people. Let this be a sign.

New Device Can Restore Insulin Production in Diabetics

A team of scientists based at Cornell University have developed a thin, tube-like implant that shows promise in providing treatment of insulin deficiency in type one diabetics. Type one diabetics cannot produce enough insulin because the body essentially destroys insulin-secreting beta cells in the pancreas. Instead of delivering insulin into the blood stream as per today’s treatments, this development transplants the stem cell derived beta cells into the abdomen. The islets (clusters of cells) are encased in a hydrogel made from brown algae, and it has been called TRAFFIC (Thread Reinforced Alginate Fiber For Islets enCapsulation). 

The Need For Perfection in Youth Has Risen by a Third in the Last 30 Years

In comparison to previous generations, a constant obsession in young people to be perfect has risen, according to recent research on behalf of the American Psychological Association. This need is affecting overall mental and physical health. The study has also found that young adults who impose unrealistic standards has increased by 16%, leading to unfulfilled relationships and a 10% increase in personal irrational desire to be perfect. 

I really want everyone to be aware that you do NOT have to be in the top 10% of your class to enjoy science. You do NOT have to create a new scientific theorem to validate your appreciation for science. Having this said, you absolutely should NOT be intimidated by science. Something we fail to acknowledge sometimes is that academic rigor and reading books are not equated to scientific awareness. 

One of the most important things is to be aware of what is occurring around you. I encourage you to develop a passion for not only political or social awareness, but scientific awareness; A passion for what is making everything work around you, and the innovations that are constantly being created around you. 

That’s the main reason I created this blog. Scientists are often condescending in that they make information inaccessible by using difficult vocabulary or surrounding their studies in a lot of word fluff so it looks super boring to read. What I want is to create an approachable platform for people to learn to love science; Regardless of whether you have a 1.0 GPA or decided to choose a major university far from the STEM fields. 

Cell Formation in the Brain’s Fear Center: A New Way to Approach PTSD Treatment

The way in which parts of the adult brain forms new cells is through a process called neurogenesis; However, some parts of the brain do not. The amygdala – a part of the brain responsible for controlling fear and emotional memories – has been found to be one of the places that adult neurogenesis occurs. This provides a way to treat phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) right at its source. 

Scientists have discovered that the amygdala stem cells could be stimulated to proliferate, which could help in increasing the production of new cells in the region that inhibit fear responses, thus reducing the amygdala over-activity featured in PTSD. 

So what is love? Before recently, not even the greatest minds of our generation knew. Scientists believe that they may finally have found the answer, after discovering the first evidence of changes in the love-struck brain. Turns out that love isn’t a social construct.

The team scanned the brains of 100 students recruited from Southwest University in China and found clear changes in the areas of the brain involved in reward, motivation, emotion and social interactions when someone was in love. The results shed light on the underlying neural mechanisms of romantic love.

The researchers used something called “resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging” (known as fMRI) to compare the brain activity of three different groups - 34 people who had been in love for between four and 18 months, 34 who had recently broken up with someone they loved, and 32 who had never been in love at all.

It was ensured that across the three groups there was no significant difference in age, personal monthly expenses, family income, or years of education for a fair test. During the scans, the participants were told to think of nothing in particular, so the scientists could get an understanding of how their brains worked overall.

They found that those who were “in love” had increased activity in several areas of their brains, including “the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, insula, caudate, amygdala, and nucleus accumbens, as well as the temporo-parietal junction, posterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, inferior parietal, precuneus, and temporal lobe”. In many of these brain regions, the amount of activity they saw was linked to the amount of time someone had been in love. Therefore, the longer they’d loved someone, the more activity they experienced. On the other hand, the longer the “ended love” group had been broken up, the lower activity in these regions. They also showed that one area of the brain, the caudate nucleus, seemed to be involved in helping people cope with the end of a love affair.

Not only do these findings shed a light on the complex and widely unknown structure we call our brains, but it demonstrates that love is a physical phenomenon just as much as it is emotional. Love is one of the mysteries of our world, but soon, it will no longer be.

YEAST IN BIOTECHNOLOGY – AN EMERGING FIELD

Saccharomyces have been exploited by humans for baking and brewing practices for millenniums, and S. cerevisiae is described as the most domesticated organism of all time. It’s applications in the food industry are evident and well-known (as well as S. boulardii’s role in probiotic diarrhea prevention), but it’s contribution in the scientific world is not recognized often. 

Firstly, yeast plays a big role in cancer research. Over the past couple of years, scientists have identified dozens of cancer-causing mutations; much of these mutations were discovered in yeast before it was realized in human cancer. Nobel Prize laureate Leland H. Hartwell utilized yeast cells (more specifically S. cerevisiae) to study cancer and the cell cycle. He discovered that the same genes dictating the yeast cell cycle which fault in cancer cells exist in a similar capacity in human cells. Moreover, recently biologists at the University of Texas have replaced the genes in yeast with human genes to see how it would respond. They soon discovered that the yeast had survived, which opens many doors in the field of study of genetic disorders. Future studies may now compare strains of “humanized yeast” to better understand the effect of mutations on human health, or to test new drugs and therapies. Yeast has also been very useful in creating energy in the biofuel industry to produces ethanol. Furthermore, a major obstacle in pharmaceuticals is that most proteins are surrounded by groups of sugar molecules, and some sugars may cause a dangerous immune reaction. Researchers have recently discovered a cheaper way to produce sugared proteins that is just as efficient as mammalian cells with yeast.

The applications of yeast in biotechnology mentioned above are merely a foreshadowing of the depth of the importance of saccharomyces in scientific research. Although yeast may seem small and insignificant, it’s applications are far reaching. The future of biotechnology relies on the versatility of this unicellular fungus.

LEARN MORE ABOUT YEAST WITH THIS WEBSITE I MADE http://learnaboutsaccharomyces.weebly.com/

Below is sugars surrounding a human protein.

The study offers further clues about how the mutation increases the risk of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression.

Experts say the findings could help in the quest for new treatments.

Genetic mutation

Researchers led by the University of Edinburgh scanned the brains of people that have a specific genetic mutation that causes part of one chromosome to swap places with another.

The mutation results in disruption of a gene called DISC1, which is associated with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and recurrent major depression.

Brain changes

The team found that people with the genetic mutation had changes in the structure of their brain. These changes were linked with the severity of their symptoms of mental ill health.

They also showed that carriers of the mutation had lower levels of a chemical called glutamate in certain areas of their brain.

Reduced glutamate levels have been strongly linked with schizophrenia in previous studies.

Psychiatric illness

Researchers say their findings confirm that the DISC1 mutation is associated with a significantly increased risk of psychiatric illness.

They hope that continuing to study people with the mutation will reveal new insights to the biological mechanisms that underpin these conditions.

This study confirms and extends the genetics of DISC1, and shows how that and similar genetic effects can increase the risk of major mental illnesses.

Family history

The DISC1 mutation was first identified in a Scottish family that showed unusually high rates of major psychiatric disorders.

Scientists have been studying generations of the family for 40 years but this is the first time they have scanned their brains.

Study