just grab a hold of my hand,

I want you guys to know this shit not only makes my life better and easier, and consequently makes me like you more, but WAY MORE IMPORTANTLY could literally save someone's life.

Yes, eye strain sucks. Yes migraines are painful. Yes seizures are miserable. But every single epileptic seizure, to a very small but very much not zero degree, can just kill you. Seizures are horrible and dangerous - with aspiration and head trauma to take into account as well. Even if it's "not that much flashing" or it's "not that long" or "it's only a seizure" or whatever kind of excuse you may want to make - PLEASE think about photosensitive users when you interact with media

Anything with

Rapid change between different colors

Rapid change between light and dark frames

Anything that causes the value of the screen to change very majorly very quickly

Anything very color intensive/stressful for the eyes

Needs to be tagged with things like "flashing lights" "strobing" "eye strain" etc - NOT tags such as "photosensitive" or "epilepsy" bc we use those tags for our community

"... in April last year scientists discovered that octopuses, along with some squid and cuttlefish species, routinely edit their RNA (ribonucleic acid) sequences to adapt to their environment....that's really not how adaptations usually happen in multicellular animals. When an organism changes in some fundamental way, it typically starts with a genetic mutation - a change to the DNA. Those genetic changes are then translated into action by DNA's molecular sidekick, RNA. You can think of DNA instructions as a recipe, while RNA is the chef that orchestrates the cooking in the kitchen of each cell, producing necessary proteins that keep the whole organism going.

But RNA doesn't just blindly execute instructions - occasionally it improvises with some of the ingredients, changing which proteins are produced in the cell in a rare process called RNA editing. When such an edit happens, it can change how the proteins work, allowing the organism to fine-tune its genetic information without actually undergoing any genetic mutations. But most organisms don't really bother with this method, as it's messy and causes problems more often that solving them....

In 2015, researchers discovered that the common squid has edited more than 60 percent of RNA in its nervous system. Those edits essentially changed its brain physiology, presumably to adapt to various temperature conditions in the ocean....at least two species of octopus and one cuttlefish do the same thing on a regular basis. To draw evolutionary comparisons, they also looked at a nautilus and a gastropod slug, and found their RNA-editing prowess to be lacking.

"This shows that high levels of RNA editing is not generally a molluscan thing; it's an invention of the coleoid cephalopods,"....

The researchers analysed hundreds of thousands of RNA recording sites in these animals, who belong to the coleoid subclass of cephalopods. They found that clever RNA editing was especially common in the coleoid nervous system.....

It's true that coleoid cephalopods are exceptionally intelligent.....

So it's certainly a compelling hypothesis that octopus smarts might come from their unconventionally high reliance on RNA edits to keep the brain going.....But it's not just that these animals are adept at fixing up their RNA as needed - the team found that this ability came with a distinct evolutionary tradeoff, which sets them apart from the rest of the animal world.

In terms of run-of-the-mill genomic evolution (the one that uses genetic mutations, as mentioned above), coleoids have been evolving really, really slowly. The researchers claimed that this has been a necessary sacrifice - if you find a mechanism that helps you survive, just keep using it....in order to maintain this flexibility to edit RNA, the coleoids have had to give up the ability to evolve in the surrounding regions...

As the next step, the team will be developing genetic models of cephalopods so they can trace how and when this RNA editing kicks in. "It could be something as simple as temperature changes or as complicated as experience, a form of memory,".

A polip és a tintahal evolúciója hivatalosan is furcsább, mint azt valaha is gondoltuk volna

"... tavaly áprilisban a tudósok felfedezték, hogy a polipok, valamint néhány tintahal- és tintahalfaj rutinszerűen szerkesztik RNS (ribonukleinsav) szekvenciáikat, hogy alkalmazkodjanak a környezetükhöz....ez valóban nem így szokott történni az alkalmazkodás a többsejtű állatoknál. Amikor egy szervezet valamilyen alapvető módon megváltozik, az általában genetikai mutációval - a DNS megváltoztatásával - kezdődik. Ezeket a genetikai változásokat aztán a DNS molekuláris segítője, az RNS ülteti át a gyakorlatba. A DNS utasításaira úgy is gondolhatunk, mint egy receptre, míg az RNS a séf, aki az egyes sejtek konyhájában a főzést irányítja, és a szükséges fehérjéket állítja elő, amelyek az egész szervezetet működésben tartják.

Az RNS azonban nem csak vakon hajtja végre az utasításokat - időnként improvizál néhány hozzávalóval, megváltoztatva, hogy milyen fehérjék termelődnek a sejtben egy ritka folyamat során, amelyet RNS-szerkesztésnek neveznek. Amikor egy ilyen szerkesztés megtörténik, megváltoztathatja a fehérjék működését, lehetővé téve a szervezet számára, hogy finom hangolja genetikai információit anélkül, hogy ténylegesen genetikai mutáción menne keresztül. A legtöbb szervezet azonban nem igazán foglalkozik ezzel a módszerrel, mivel rendetlen és gyakrabban okoz problémát, mint megoldja őket.....

2015-ben kutatók felfedezték, hogy a közönséges tintahal az idegrendszerében található RNS több mint 60 százalékát szerkesztette. Ezek a szerkesztések lényegében megváltoztatták az agyának fiziológiáját, feltehetően azért, hogy alkalmazkodjon az óceán különböző hőmérsékleti viszonyaihoz....legalább két polipfaj és egy tintahalfaj rendszeresen csinálja ugyanezt. Az evolúciós összehasonlítás érdekében egy nautilust és egy csigát is megvizsgáltak, és megállapították, hogy az ő RNS-szerkesztési képességeik hiányoznak.

"Ez azt mutatja, hogy a magas szintű RNS-szerkesztés nem általában a puhatestűek sajátja; ez a koleoid lábasfejűek találmánya" - írja a .....

A kutatók több százezer RNS-felvételi helyet elemeztek ezekben az állatokban, amelyek a lábasfejűek koleoid alosztályába tartoznak. Azt találták, hogy az okos RNS-szerkesztés különösen gyakori volt a koleoid idegrendszerben.....

Való igaz, hogy a koleoid lábasfejűek kivételesen intelligensek.....

Tehát mindenképpen meggyőző hipotézis, hogy a polipok okossága abból eredhet, hogy az agyuk működésének fenntartása érdekében szokatlanul nagymértékben támaszkodnak az RNS-szerkesztésre.....De nem csak arról van szó, hogy ezek az állatok ügyesen javítják az RNS-üket szükség szerint - a csapat megállapította, hogy ez a képesség egy határozott evolúciós kompromisszummal járt, ami megkülönbözteti őket az állatvilág többi részétől.

A szokásos genomikus evolúciót tekintve (amely a fent említett genetikai mutációkat használja), a koleoidok nagyon-nagyon lassan fejlődtek. A kutatók azt állították, hogy ez egy szükséges áldozat volt - ha találsz egy mechanizmust, ami segít a túlélésben, csak használd tovább....mivel a rugalmasság fenntartása érdekében az RNS szerkesztéséhez a koleoidoknak le kellett mondaniuk a környező régiók evolúciós képességéről...

trans women are at lower risk to get breast cancer than ciswomen generally, but when we do have it, we're at much much higher risk of it being missed or not treated until too late

a huge principle of medical practice is that it is more likely for a common issue to have a weird symptom or presentation, rather than a rare issue or condition to have its most common symptom show up.

First off, the tumor I have is called a microedanoma. Its really small, less than 5mm wide, and it's pushing my on pituitary gland, causing it to produce more prolactin.

The way I found this out was through:

Spontaneously developing nipple discharge. Spontaneous is key here! As the posters above have mentioned, if you've recently changed medications, those should absolutely be investigated as a potential cause first. My doctor specifically asked if I'd started any new medications when I went to them with symptoms.

Physical exam. My doctor physically examined my chest, breast tissue, and glans. When they found no lumps, swelling, or anything else to suggest tumors or infection, cancer immediately became far less of a concern. This is an important step. If a doctor tries to send you for an MRI without doing even a cursory physical exam, push back on that immediately. Even if its not cancer, it could be a tumor in your breast tissue.

Blood test. My doctor sent me in for lab work, and my prolactin levels came back elevated while everything else was normal. Again, if your doctor tries to send you for an MRI before doing any blood work, PUSH BACK ON THAT. Bloodwork could also reveal any other issues or rule out certain causes. Mine was straightforward because only prolactin was raised, but if other hormones were present it could have been a lot of different things.

Breast ultrasound. My doctor was pretty sure I'd need an MRI at this point, based on symptoms and blood work, but as a final step I got a breast ultrasound done to definitively rule out cancer or infection. (As a side note, its also far more common for insurance to cover breast ultrasounds/mammograms than MRIs, so this is also a cost saving measure for the patient). No tumors or infections were found.

MRI. With a probable diagnosis and other avenues definitively cleared out (no medication changes, infections, or tumors elsewhere), I finally went in for an actual MRI. It was at this stage they found the microadenoma.

If you're like me and one of the very rare people who actually have this kind of tumor, dont worry! There's medication to both manage symptoms (nipple discharge) and manage tumor size, and they're less than 20 USD for 3 months supply. You will be okay.

If you're not like me, congrats! You don't have a tumor. That means you're likely having a weird symptom for something really common, and you should go down the list of steps described above to figure out the issue. I have a transfem friend who does not share my tumor condition but did experience nipple discharge, turned out she had an infection that wasn't discernible through physical exam but was identified through bloodwork. Bodies are weird!

i am not being metaphorical, i work in a garden center, stop buying plants 'to bring in the bees and butterflies' and then immediately poisoning every caterpillar that dares to consume a single leaf

“My boy Spatula bunking down for a snowy night”