Lakshmi on Pink Lotus Artist: Ashwini Kumar Rai 1947 Gruha Lakshmi Magazine గ్రుహ లక్ష్మి పత్రిక Volume 16 Issue 10 (via Internet Archive)
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Lakshmi on Pink Lotus Artist: Ashwini Kumar Rai 1947 Gruha Lakshmi Magazine గ్రుహ లక్ష్మి పత్రిక Volume 16 Issue 10 (via Internet Archive)

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It’s like this at Black Rock woods right now.
(Image caption: Newborn neurons under the microscope. Source: DZNE / CRTD / Kempermann Lab)
New insights into the mechanisms of neuroplasticity
Reactive oxygen molecules, also known as “free radicals”, are generally considered harmful. However as it now turns out, they control cellular processes, which are important for the brain’s ability to adapt – at least in mice. Researchers from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and the Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD) at TU Dresden published the findings in the journal “Cell Stem Cell”.
The researchers focused on the "hippocampus", a brain area that is regarded as the control center for learning and memory. New nerve cells are created lifelong, even in adulthood. "This so-called adult neurogenesis helps the brain to adapt and change throughout life. It happens not only in mice, but also in humans," explains Prof. Gerd Kempermann, speaker of the DZNE’s Dresden site and research group leader at the CRTD.
A trigger for neurogenesis
New nerve cells emerge from stem cells. "These precursor cells are an important basis for neuroplasticity, which is how we call the brain's ability to adapt," says the Dresden scientist. Together with colleagues he has now gained new insights into the processes underlying the formation of new nerve cells. The team was able to show in mice that neural stem cells, in comparison to adult nerve cells, contain a high degree of free radicals. "This is especially true when the stem cells are in a dormant state, which means that they do not divide and do not develop into nerve cells," says Prof. Kempermann. Current study shows that an increase in the concentration of the radicals makes the stem cells ready to divide. "The oxygen molecules act like a switch that sets neurogenesis in motion."
Free radicals are waste products of normal metabolism. Cellular mechanisms are usually in place to make sure they do not pile up. This is because the reactive oxygen molecules cause oxidative stress. "Too much of oxidative stress is known to be unfavorable. It can cause nerve damage and trigger aging processes," explains Prof. Kempermann. "But obviously this is only one aspect and there is also a good side to free radicals. There are indications of this in other contexts. However, what is new and surprising is the fact that the stem cells in our brains not only tolerate such extremely high levels of radicals, but also use them for their function.”
Healthy aging
Radical scavengers, also known as "antioxidants", counteract oxidative stress. Such substances are therefore considered important components of a healthy diet. They can be found in fruits and vegetables. "The positive effect of antioxidants has been proven and is not questioned by our study. We should also be careful with drawing conclusions for humans based on purely laboratory studies," emphasizes Kempermann. "And yet our results at least suggest that free radicals are not fundamentally bad for the brain. In fact, they are most likely important for the brain to remain adaptable throughout life and to age in a healthy way.”
The meanings behind the colors.
Gay pride flag - Gilbert Baker (1978)

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LIL NAS X 2021 | Ethan James Green ph. for L’Uomo Vogue
Two boys practicing their swordplay, Harlem, 1939–1940.
Photo: Aaron Siskind via Smithsonian American Art Museum
“Crowds were the worst. Any little person will tell you that. There’s nothing worse than crowds: getting looked at, getting seen. People making fun of my family. All three of us are little people: my mother, my brother, and me. My mom raised us on her own. With no help. But she knew the struggle, and she would build us up every time we got bullied. Sometimes I’d even feel like killing myself. But she’d say: ‘You’re special. Your mother loves you. Your brother loves you.’ But my mom was also a thug. She was the muscle in our family. If we complained that people were staring at us, she’d say: ‘Look right back. Talk your shit.’ Whenever I got in trouble for fighting, she’d never get mad. She’d say: ‘You defended yourself. That’s good. Now do it again.’ She encouraged us early to play basketball. First it was my older brother. Then it was me. There was this center in our neighborhood where a dude named Hammer ran a program. He’d make us read a book for thirty minutes—I hated that part, but then we’d play basketball. And that’s how I learned about my size abilities, not disabilities. If you’re a six or seven footer, and you aren’t perfect, I’ll time your dribble. I’ll steal it the moment it hits the ground. So you’ve got no choice but to dribble low. You gotta come down to me. And I’m already down here. This is my world. This is where I live. The guys in my neighborhood grew to respect me. I was never getting trash talked in the Douglas Projects. But when I started playing in high school, and we went to other arenas, the crowds could be cruel. My teammates would try to protect me, and motivate me. But there’s not much you can do with three hundred people chanting ‘midget.’ I hated walking out to the court. Any little person will tell you, crowds are the worst. But as soon as I made that first shot, they’d get quiet. Then I’d do it again, and again, and again. Then eventually the crowd would start to get on my side. Cause they’d never seen anything like me. They’d start cheering for me even though I was on the other team. And my mom would be in the stands, talking her shit. Saying: ‘My son is smaller than all of you. And he’s kicking your ass!’” #comebacknyc
Scientists invent a new type of microscope that can see through an intact skull
Non-invasive microscopic techniques such as optical coherence microscopy and two-photon microscopy are commonly used for in vivo imaging of living tissues. When light passes through turbid materials such as biological tissues, two types of light are generated: ballistic photons and multiply scattered photons. The ballistic photons travel straight through the object without experiencing any deflection and hence is used to reconstruct the object image. On the other hand, the multiply scattered photons are generated via random deflections as the light passes through the material and show up as speckle noise in the reconstructed image. As the light propagates through increasing distances, the ratio between multiply scattered and ballistic photons increases drastically, thereby obscuring the image information. In addition to the noise generated by the multiply scattered light, optical aberration of ballistic light also causes contrast reduction and image blur during the image reconstruction process.
Bone tissues in particular have numerous complex internal structures, which cause severe multiple light scattering and complex optical aberration. When it comes to optical imaging of the mouse brain through an intact skull, the fine structures of the nervous system are hard to visualize due to strong speckle noise and image distortion. This is problematic in neuroscience research, where the mouse is widely used as a model organism. Due to the limitation of the currently used imaging techniques, the skull has to be removed or thinned to microscopically investigate the neural networks of brain tissues underneath.
Hence other solutions have been suggested to achieve deeper imaging of living tissues. For example, three-photon microscopy has been successfully used to image neurons beneath the mouse skull in recent years. However, three-photon microscopy is limited by a low laser repetition rate as it employs an excitation window in the infrared range, which can damage the living tissue during in vivo imaging. It also has excessive excitation power, which means photobleaching is more extensive in comparison to the two-photon approach.
Recently, a research team led by Prof. Choi Wonshik at the Center for Molecular Spectroscopy and Dynamics within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in Seoul, South Korea made a major breakthrough in deep-tissue optical imaging. They developed a novel optical microscope that can image through an intact mouse skull and acquire a microscopic map of neural networks in the brain tissues without losing spatial resolution.
This new microscope is termed as a reflection matrix microscope, and it combines the powers of both hardware and computational adaptive optics (AO), which is a technology originally developed for ground-based astronomy to correct optical aberrations. While conventional confocal microscope measures reflection signal only at the focal point of illumination and discard all out of focus light, the reflection matrix microscope records all the scattered photons at positions other than the focal point. The scattered photons are then computationally corrected using a novel AO algorithm called closed-loop accumulation of single scattering (CLASS), which the team developed back in 2017. The algorithm exploits all scattered light to selectively extract ballistic light and correct severe optical aberration. Compared to the most conventional AO microscopy systems, which require bright point-like reflectors or fluorescent objects as guide stars similarly to the use of AO in astronomy, the reflection matrix microscope works without any fluorescent labeling and without depending on the target’s structures. In addition, the number of aberration modes that can be corrected is more than 10 times greater than that of the conventional AO systems.
The reflection matrix microscope has a great advantage in that it can be directly combined with a conventional two-photon microscope that is already widely used in the life science field. To remove the aberration experienced by the excitation beam of the two-photon microscope, the team deployed hardware-based adaptive optics within the reflection matrix microscope to counteract the aberration of the mouse skull. They showcased the capabilities of the new microscope by taking two-photon fluorescence images of a dendritic spine of a neuron behind the mouse skull, with a spatial resolution close to the diffraction limit. Normally a conventional two-photon microscope cannot resolve the delicate structure of the dendrite spine without removing the brain tissue from the skull entirely. This is a highly significant achievement, as the South Korean group demonstrated the first high-resolution imaging of neural networks through an intact mouse skull. This means that it is now possible to investigate the mouse brain in its most native states.
Research professor Yoon Seokchan and graduate student Lee Hojun, who conducted the study, said, "By correcting the wavefront distortion, we can focus light energy on the desired location inside the living tissue.” “Our microscope allows us to investigate fine internal structures deep within living tissues that cannot be resolved by any other means. This will greatly aid us in early disease diagnosis and expedite neuroscience research."
The researchers set their next research direction to minimize the form factor of the microscope and increase its imaging speed. The goal is the development of a label-free reflective matrix microscope with high imaging depth for use in clinics.
Vice director Choi Wonshik said, "Reflection matrix microscope is the next-generation technology that goes beyond the limitations of conventional optical microscopes. This will allow us to widen our understanding of the light propagation through scattering media and expand the scope of applications that an optical microscope can explore."
Harry Napper, Hemlock design, 1899

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It’s like someone went crazy with a label maker and I love it.
How can you forget this gem??
People always act like the old Batman show being corny was a product of its time but you’re never going to get me to believe this wasn’t a deliberate artistic choice
Making these signs must have been as much fun as putting them into the script.
JANELLE MONAE SHAPE // 2020 photographed by Dana Scruggs
Art by Sibylline Meynet
Manimukta by Preeti Mohan x Weaver Story | Festive 2019

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Elephant Family Cool Off in a Pond Selected as a Finalist of “Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards Conpetition” Visit and Vote 🗳️The Affinity Photo People’s Choice Award (via Instagram: Kunal Gupta)
New Born Elephant Naming Ceremony Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala Manjunatha Temple, Karnataka
Spiritual_indiangirl wrote : She is Shivani.❤️😍😍 Today it’s her naming ceremony at Dharmasthala Sri Manjunatha Temple, Karnataka… So cute 😍😍😍 (via Instagram: Spiritual_indiangirl)