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Category: neuroscience – Page 903

USA’s First “Pick-Your-Own Hemp” Field Opens in Maine

Customers can trim branches for $35 a pound or cut down the whole plant (like a Christmas tree) for $25 a pound. In a video of the field’s grand opening, a customer buys a 15-pound plant for almost $400.

That may sound pricey, but considering you’re lucky to find most refined hemp products for $25 an ounce, it’s a bargain, according to the farm’s customers, who tell the local newspaper, they’ll be using the plant’s flowers to make CBD oil, lotions and tinctures for pain, anxiety, depression and insomnia.

Instead of conventional row crops, they now grow one of the most lucrative plants on the planet.

Ben and Taryn Marcus were first in line to get their state license to grow 7000 hemp plants on 3 acres last spring. They got their seeds in the ground just in time for a bountiful harvest this fall and are now enlisting the public’s help in picking it.

David Pearce — Unitary Subjects of Experience & the Binding Problem of Consciousness

How is a Unitary Subject of Experience Possible? ~ Philosopher David Pearce.

Is Australia conscious? How would 86 billion classical neurons (mind dust) come together to form a unitary subject of experience?
The answer is related to the binding problem of consciousness.

Is Australia a unitary subject of experience?

A quick snippet of part of a discussion with David Pearce in a pub in Melbourne, Australia (2014).

Many thanks for watching!

Continue reading “David Pearce — Unitary Subjects of Experience & the Binding Problem of Consciousness” | >

New Brain Computer interface technology | Steve Hoffman | TEDxCEIBS

Wow!

Brain Computer interface technology opens up a world of possibilities. We are on the cusp of this technology that is so powerful and has the potential to so radically transform our lives and existence! After starting three venture-funded startups in Silicon Valley, Steven Hoffman, known as Captial Hoff, launched Founders Space with the mission to educate and accelerate entrepreneurs and intrapreneur. Founder Space has become one of the top startup accelerators in the world with over 50 partners in 22 countries. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

Tau-mediated RNA splicing errors linked to Alzheimer’s disease

A collaborative study published today in the journal Cell Reports provides evidence for a new molecular cause for neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease. The study, led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital, integrates data from human brain autopsy samples and fruit flies to reveal a novel mechanistic link between alterations in RNA splicing and tau-mediated neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease.

“Cells carry out their functions by producing specific proteins encoded in their genes. To produce proteins, genes encoded in the DNA are first transcribed into RNA molecules, which subsequently are translated into proteins,” said corresponding author Dr. Joshua Shulman, associate professor of neurology, neuroscience and molecular and human genetics at Baylor and investigator at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute.

In this study, Shulman and his colleagues investigated a molecular mechanism called RNA splicing that is involved in the production of mature RNA molecules necessary to produce working proteins. They looked into the possibility that aggregates of within neurons, a key marker of Alzheimer’s disease, interfered with RNA splicing.

Bio-Mimetic Real-Time Cortex Project — Whole Brain Emulation — Dr. Alice Parker — University of Southern California — ideaXme — Ira Pastor

Brain tunes itself to criticality, maximizing information processing

Researchers long wondered how the billions of independent neurons in the brain come together to reliably build a biological machine that easily beats the most advanced computers. All of those tiny interactions appear to be tied to something that guarantees an impressive computational capacity.

Over the past 20 years, evidence mounted in support of a theory that the tunes itself to a point where it is as excitable as it can be without tipping into disorder, similar to a phase transition. This criticality hypothesis asserts that the brain is poised on the fine line between quiescence and chaos. At exactly this line, is maximized.

However, one of the key predictions of this theory—that criticality is truly a set point, and not a mere inevitability—had never been tested. Until now. New research from Washington University in St. Louis directly confirms this long-standing prediction in the brains of freely behaving animals.

Light 10 Billion Times Brighter Than the Sun Illuminates 2,000-Year-Old Herculaneum Scrolls

Researchers led by the renowned ancient artifacts decoder, Professor Brent Seales, will be using Diamond, the UK’s national synchrotron science facility in the heart of Oxfordshire, to examine a collection of world-famous ancient artifacts owned by the Institut de France. Using this powerful light source and special techniques the team has developed, the researchers are working to virtually unwrap two complete scrolls and four fragments from the damaged Herculaneum scrolls. After decades of effort, Seales thinks the scans from Diamond represent his team’s best chance yet to reveal the elusive contents of these 2,000-year-old papyri.

Prof Seales is director of the Digital Restoration Initiative at the University of Kentucky (US), a research program dedicated to the development of software tools that enable the recovery of fragile, unreadable texts. According to Seales, Diamond Light Source is an absolutely crucial element in our long-term plan to reveal the writing from damaged materials, as it offers unparalleled brightness and control for the images we can create, plus access to a brain trust of scientists who understand our challenges and are eager to help us succeed.?Texts from the ancient world are rare and precious, and they simply cannot be revealed through any other known process. Thanks to the opportunity to study the scrolls at Diamond Light Source, which has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew Mellon Foundation, we are poised to take a tremendous step forward in our ability to read and visualize this material.

Klotho: Queen of Anti-Aging Proteins

Klotho, named after one of the Fates of Greek mythology, is the queen of anti-aging proteins. There are no close contenders at this time. Klotho gene therapy, like the one offered by Integrated Health Systems, has tremendous benefits. While it is produced primarily in the kidneys and brain, its soluble form circulates throughout the body. Many of the investigations so far have been done nephrologists interested in its prominent role in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), yet over the last decade its multifaceted role in the aging process has become a topic of intense research.

Klotho deficient mice show premature aging in multiple organs.

Inducing KL overexpression with a viral vector, like AAV, not only reverses this premature aging, but also enhances resistance to oxidative and ischemic damage. More impressive, KL outright extends the lifespans of mice, likely be inhibiting IGF and insulin signalling. Dubbed an “aging suppressor gene,” it can yield results similar to caloric restriction – what is, at this time, the most tried and true method of extending the lifespans of a variety of model organisms.