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How many T-Rex existed at one time during the cretaceous period - 1.7 billion according to a recent study
www.sciencealert.com

Scientist Figures Out How Many T. Rex Ever Existed, And It's Terrifying

The Tyrannosaurus rex is dinosaur royalty, an iconic and instantly identifiable species – and according to a new study, as many as 1.7 billion of these beasts roamed Earth before an unfortunate meeting with an asteroid.
www.sciencealert.com www.sciencealert.com
No place for us in that world. Raptor population would have been even larger. Thank goodness that asteroid put an end to them.
 
Quadriplegic man walks after neural implants.
www.abc.net.au

Brain-spine interface allows paralysed man to walk

Trusted and independent source of local, national and world news. In-depth analysis, business, sport, weather and more.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au

With those accents I expected them to something like ' You don't frighten us you English pig dogs! Go and boil your bottoms! Son of a silly person!'

The Guardian has an article about it, too
www.theguardian.com

Paralysed man walks using device that reconnects brain with muscles

Pioneering research could help development of miniaturised devices for stroke patients and paralysed people
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

'The device also appears to boost rehabilitation. After more than 40 training sessions with the implant, Oskam, who did not sever all the nerves in his spine, regained some control over his legs, even when the device was turned off. Courtine believes that reconnecting the brain and spine helps to regenerate spinal nerves, recovering some of the patient’s lost control.'

Many, many tears ago I worked in the Austin Spinal unit, a weird place to work. Then it was SciFi speculation that electronics could be used to regain cord function, 40 years later it is coming to be. Isn't science wonderful?
 
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www.uts.edu.au

Plants remove cancer causing toxins from air

A ground-breaking study has revealed that plants can efficiently remove toxic petrol fumes, including cancer causing compounds such as benzene, from indoor air. The study was led by University of Technology Sydney (UTS) bioremediation researcher Associate Professor Fraser Torpy, in partnership...
www.uts.edu.au www.uts.edu.au
 
CaptchaProofBot said:
arstechnica.com

No A/C? No problem, if buildings copy networked tunnels of termite mounds

"For the first time, it may be possible to design a true living, breathing building.”
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com
Click to expand...
Using old technology for modern applications.

Reminds me of these: Yakhchāl - Wikipedia

300px-Yakhchal_of_Yazd_province.jpg
 
news.exeter.ac.uk

Illusions are in the eye, not the mind

Numerous visual illusions are caused by limits in the way our eyes and visual neurones work – rather than more complex psychological processes, new research shows. Researchers examined illusions in which an object’s surroundings affect
news.exeter.ac.uk news.exeter.ac.uk

“Modern high dynamic range televisions create bright white regions that are over 10,000 times brighter than their darkest black, approaching the contrast levels of natural scenes,” Dr Troscianko added.


“How our eyes and brains can handle this contrast is a puzzle because tests show that the highest contrasts we humans can see at a single spatial scale is around 200:1.


“Even more confusingly, the neurones connecting our eyes to our brains can only handle contrasts of about 10:1.


but this TV can do contrast of 2 bazillion to 1 !!!! says a salesperson...;)
 
I enjoyed this doco about the 'Great Oxidation Event' (2.5 million years ago) in which it is framed as an extinction event (which it was) that ultimately led to the first 'Snowball earth' during the Huronian glaciation. It tells a good story, most of which is probably mostly true.

 
A article about the 5 leaps in animal cognition.

theconversation.com

All animal intelligence was shaped by just 5 leaps in brain evolution

From jellyfish to genius, the amazing diversity of animal minds around us evolved through five major changes in the computational capacity of brains.
theconversation.com theconversation.com

1. Coordination -the big initial challenge
2. Centralised nervous system ---> Brain
3. Feed back systems
4. Parallel processing
5. Reflexion - the self modifying brain
 

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I happened upon this interesting article about somatic mutations in schizophrenia. A little background first. It's been long known that there is a significant genetic contribution to schizophrenia eg if both your parent have schizophrenia your chance of having schizophrenia is around 50%. However the patterns have never matched the usual transmission of recessive or dominant genes. The usual explanation is that there are multiple genes interacting making the transmission complex. This paper suggest somatic mutations may be the cause. Somatic mutations are those that happen after conception, most cancers are due to somatic mutations.

neurosciencenews.com

Schizophrenia Linked to Non-Inherited Genetic Mutations - Neuroscience News

Researchers found a link between schizophrenia and somatic copy-number variants, mutations occurring post-inheritance.
neurosciencenews.com neurosciencenews.com

They found two genes, NRXN1 and ABCB11, correlate with schizophrenia and appear to have undergone a somatic mutation during development. Interestingly ABCB11 is a gene previously associated with treatment-resistant schizophrenia.

This is really exciting if true and may open up better understanding of schizophrenia. It's much like the situation with cancer, understanding the biology and genetics properly will lead to better therapies and hopefully cures in the near future.
 
Best trip I've had since 1969, man! Using visual data from the James Webb, you can take a trip back in time to Maisie’s Galaxy, which formed only 390 million years after the Big Bang, or about 13.4 billion years ago. Each second amounts to traveling 200 million light-years into the data set, and seeing 200 million years into the past. Note how the appearances of the galaxies change as you move back it time.

 
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CaptchaProofBot said:
she's a beauty

tu-dresden.de

Schützende Eleganz: Forschende der TU Dresden verbinden Schönheit und Schutz in Ammoniten-Schalen

350 Millionen Jahre Evolution und nahezu zwei Jahrhunderte wissenschaftlicher Diskussion führen nun zu einer neuen Hypothese am B CUBE – Center for Molecular Bioengineering an der Technischen …
tu-dresden.de tu-dresden.de

i mean look at the fine webbing reinforcement against the walls..how the...there was no AI back then...must have been Aquatic Intelligence
Click to expand...
Like much of nature, the 'Aquatic Intelligence' had a strange penchant for the Fibonacci sequence - it's seen everywhere. Examples and brief discussion here. Fibonacci Sequence
 
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