#interesting research

[wowieeitsisa]

who’s your favorite madness combat character (for research purposes 👍)

I like Sanford a normal amount.

[yeoldenews]

A selection of strange and cryptic personal ads from The New York Herald, 1860s to 1890s. 14/?

[semperfidelisamo]

Thinking about death: High neural activity is linked to shorter lifespans

If there’s one thing that humans can’t stop thinking about, it’s death. But new research published in the journal Nature suggests that all that thinking might be the very thing that brings death on.

More precisely, researchers discovered that higher neural activity has a negative effect on longevity. Neural activity refers to the constant flow of electricity and signals throughout the brain, and excessive activity could be expressed in many ways; a sudden change in mood, a facial twitch, and so on.

“An exciting future area of research will be to determine how these findings relate to such higher-order human brain functions,” said professor of genetics and study co-author Bruce Yankner. While it’s probably not the case that thinking a thought reduces your lifespan in the same way smoking a cigarette does, the study didn’t determine whether actual thinking had an impact on lifespan — just neural activity in general.

THE ROLE OF REST:

To say this was an unexpected finding is an understatement. We expect that aging affects the brain, of course, but not that the brain affects aging. These results were so counterintuitive that the study took two additional years before it was published as the researchers gathered more data to convince their reviewers. Yankner was forbearing about the delay. “If you have a cat in your backyard, people believe you,” he said. “If you say you have a zebra, they want more evidence.”

Yankner and colleagues studied the nervous systems of a range of animals, including humans, mice, and Caenorhabditis elegans, or roundworm. What they found was that a protein called REST was the culprit behind high neural activity and faster aging.

First, they studied brain samples donated from deceased individuals aged between 60 and 100. Those that had lived longer — specifically individuals who were 85 and up — had unique gene expression profile in their brain cells. Genes related to neural excitation appeared to be underexpressed in these individuals. There was also significantly more REST protein in these cells, which made sense: REST’s job is to regulate the expression of various genes, and it’s also been shown to protect aging brains from diseases like dementia.

But in order to show that this wasn’t simply a coincidence, Yankner and colleagues amplified the REST gene in roundworm and mice. With more REST came quieter nervous systems, and with quieter nervous systems came longer lifespans in both animal models.

A PATH TO LONGEVITY?

Higher levels of REST proteins appeared to activate a chain reaction that ultimately led to these increases in longevity. Specifically, REST suppressed the expression of genes that control for a variety of neural features related to excitation, like neurotransmitter receptors and the structure of synapses. The lower levels of activity activated a group of proteins known as forkhead transcription factors, which play a role in regulating the flow of genetic information in our cells. These transcription factors, in turn, affect a “longevity pathway” connected to signaling by the hormones insulin and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1).

This longevity pathway has been identified by researchers before, often in connection with possible benefits to lifespan from fasting. Additionally, the insulin/IGF1 hormones are critical for cell metabolism and growth, features which relate to longevity in obvious ways.

The most exciting aspect of this research is that it offers targets for future research on longevity, possibly even allowing for the development of a longevity drug. For instance, anticonvulsant drugs work by suppressing the excessive neural firing that occurs during seizures, and in studies conducted on roundworms, they’ve also been shown to increase lifespan. This recent study shows that this connection might not be coincidental. Similarly, antidepressants that block serotonin activity have also been shown to increase lifespan. Dietary restriction has long been implicated in promoting longer lifespans as well. Dietary restriction lowers insulin/IGF1 signaling, which this study showed affects the REST protein and neural activity. More research will be needed to confirm or reject any of these possibilities, but all represent exciting new avenues to explore, possibly resulting in the extension of our lifespans.

[charcoaldustonmyfingers]

Leo skeletal anatomy! Click for better quality :)

The way most turtles actually fit into their shells is because their arms and legs are shaped to fit into the loose skin around the openings for their limbs, but on account of their human proportions, I just suspend my disbelief as to how mutant turtles could fit in their shells without the odd configuration to their organs that real turtles have. Real turtles have flat lungs that sit widely along their carapace, which is weird but cool. Turtles shed their scutes (the large flat scales on their shells and plastron) about once a year or if the scutes are damaged. The scutes have barely any skin between them and the bone, which is why turtle skeletons usually have the scutes on still, though they can pop off. The rest of the skin sheds regularly though, instead of in large patches.

For the brothers’, their respiration is much more human than turtle. Therefore, their lungs need to expand and contract with their diaphragm rather than just with their movement, so therefore they must have some flexibility to their chest. Some turtles, like box turtles, already have hinged plastrons, and softshell shells are mostly cartilage, so it’s not too far off to assume that there’s a bit of cartilage just to the upper plastral bones of the hard shelled brothers to give their humanoid lungs room to breathe.

Poor Leo. After the movie, one could assume he’s got a couple broken bones. It kind of made me morbidly curious as to how to describe injuries on a character whose skeletal structure is quite different from a human’s for my own writing!

Feel free to use as reference or disregard, these are just my own little speculations :)

[General][Raph][Donnie][Mikey][Splinter]

[churomo]

school doodles

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

I feel that often, people really disregard bivalves (and other sessile animals absolutely) as just a little more than background objects, somewhere between a plant and a rock, when they’re fellow animals just like us. I mean I get it, a mussel siphoning in water all day is less engaging than like a songbird darting about the woods or a sheep that walks around and that you can pet. But they really aren’t at all just machines!

Last year I had the pleasure of meeting adult freshwater pearl mussels, who were being showcased to raise awareness about their endangerment and ecosystem services. They had a few mussels in these small tanks to show how quickly they can clean the water — I’m sure you’ve seen the setup, there’s one really cloudy tank and a clear tank that used to be cloudy a few hours ago, but is now clear thanks to the filtering made by the mussels! One of the tanks had a strange sight in it: two still mussels and one… flailing one. Its light leg was fully out and waving about, and its shell was sort of lodged in the corner, upside down. When my friends and I asked what the matter with the mussel was, it had apparently been unsatisfied with its place in the sand that the scientists had put it in, and while trying to figure out a nicer position it had accidentally flipped itself over! Poor guy couldn’t quite get out from the corner for a while ToT

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

hope you feel better soon!

I am riddled with ailments, but I stay silly!

[somerandomdudelmao]

In my sleeplessness last night, I decided to note down every time Uncletello says "I'll fix it" or some variation of it since it's used quite a bit! I didn’t do every time Donnie’s repaired something or tried to find a solution because that’s like the whole comic 💀 so I just focused on the use of the word fix in relation to him. THE RESULTS:

Donnie’s always been the one who handles repairing things and helping his family and doing things for them is his love language. But, his idea of “fixing” really picks up when he’s sick and when he’s trying to get his brothers back. He’s the fix it guy and he tries to do what he does best when he gets anxious. He mends, repairs, he improves and adjusts, he fixes, or at least he tries to, even if the thing he sets out to fix seems impossible or large, like fixing the planet or aging or DEATH. Anything for his family, even everything. I just think it’s interesting that that word in particular is used so often with him!

I also think it’s interesting that during Donnie’s death absence, Casey uses “fix” in the same grand and determined way that his uncle does. It makes me think that Casey’s come to associate “I’ll fix it” with “everything is gonna be okay” because that’s what it means whenever Donnie uses it. He says that everything is gonna be okay, and in one way or another, he usually ends up being right.

OH. MY GOD

[reality-detective]

Dr. Berg on "Methylene Blue" ... Listen, you may find this interesting 🤔

[grand-line-shenanigans]

You made a mistake, Murderbot, a really bad mistake. How the hell was I supposed to know there were transports sentient enough to be mean?

[sboochi]

sooooo what's this new fic idea you have in mind? 👀

*Twirls hair*

Soooo are you familiar with the myth of Eros and Psyche?

I was playing around with this idea a while ago, but only recently it clicked when I thought...... what if I combined it with Norse mythology instead of Greek

Basically Hiccup is brought by Jack to his house (for.... ReasonsTM) away from Midgard, for his own safety

The most interesting factor to me is that Hiccup can't ever look at Jack, cue fun scenes where Hiccup has banters with an invisible entity

...until it's night time and ooops to get back to a physical form and sleep Jack has to become visible again, and the problem is that for plot reasons Hiccup can't know who he is

So they form a weird dynamic: Hiccup trusts that Jack is protecting him and not lying, Jack trusts Hiccup to not open his eyes when he's visible

And...... you know where this is going if you know the myth hehehe

[corsairspade]

every time i interact with the silmarillion i get weirdly excited about the fact that the authorial intent is that it's a translation of historical accounts. it's a tertiary source! none of it is first hand. it makes it so much more interesting. was the legendarium a mannish tradition? what parts of these were written by pengolodh? by rumil? what loremaster has recorded this? would there be bias in the accounting? can i trust what i'm reading, from this viewpoint, this many years after it would have been written?

what has been mythologised, what has been sanitised, what is third-hand written on rumour? it's such an interesting thing to consider.

[bigfatbreak]

more ff7/first soldier ranting. laughing my ass off that sephiroth's little dream sequence of his perfect reality involves his mommy loving him and making him his favorite food, because my poor son. wants family more than anything else. and thats it

and then Angeal has a fantasy of being in Genesis' shoes and everypony loving hiiiim and complimenting hiiiim and he's the one that invents banora white juice and he's the one that's well-read and ambitious and everyone's sooo proud of him

and im laughing my ass off bc he's had such a complex about Genesis since CHILDHOOD and has just been taking constant potshots at him struggling to find a way to knock him down a peg because of his blinding envy. yeah here's your unconditional hero everyone. mhm. yup he's the most honorable guy here. the stupid fuck who fantasizes about doing everything genesis has ever done while constantly putting him beneath himself because his pride is incandescent in spite of not earning any of the accolades Genesis worked for. yup. total team mom there

[usernamehastoomanylet]

Pocket size personnel

[bonefall]

a while ago you said that Starclan cats design kittens and customize them with patterns and colors from their parents genes. So, do the clan cats raise any eyebrows when it comes to people who know cat genetics? Is there a geneticist who is holding their head wondering how these two cats have this colored kit while their starclan designer was just playing around? Or do the Starclan designers still have to stay within the rules?

Basically, do the humans notice that some of these clan cats are sparkle cats lol

I try to not get too "lost in the weeds" since the humans aren't the focus of the story, just taking care that they DO have real motivations behind their actions rather than construction crews materializing out of nowhere to Do A Chaos, but...

First, the genetics of cats in Albion are different than humans in equivalent Great Britain.

Partially, this is because I honestly just don't really enjoy learning about in-depth genetics or applying them realistically. I like drawing anime characters and writing anime battles, so they have anime genetics. But more than that, off-screen, the intelligence of cats has altered the timeline of this world.

If cats really were capable of higher thinking, that totally would have had some butterfly effects. I like dropping crazy alt-history and then not elaborating on it, because it's funny. Archimedes' cat helped him invent a death ray, btw.

On that note of genetics though, you guessed right. StarClan designers DO have to work with what they have. Whatever the genetics of this alternate universe of cats are, every kit born still abides by the laws of nature.

Which brings me to...

Second, the researchers do notice that the Clan cats are special. In fact, there is a "study of magic" in this universe-- Thaumatology. "The science of wonder."

(There's no world where magic actually factually exists that science isn't all over it lmao)

Thaumatology facts I haven't shared so far since it's all offscreen and just Bonus Worldbuilding;

It is a "soft science," not a hard one.

It has a LOT of problems with replicability. Thaumatologists and Quantum Physicists have a lot of in-jokes.

The most well known (to the point of being a cliche) is "magic and quantum particles both hate being watched."

Magic is highly variable based on a bajillion very personal factors, like emotion, environment, culture, personal background, etc, so it's severely difficult to re-create it in controlled environments.

Thaumatology has a lot of overlap with sociology, archeology, and theology, so people from these fields work together a lot.

There was absolutely not a dedicated Thaumatologist working in the Research Team early on, sadly.

It was probably discovered when the Battle of the True Eclipse blew out a bunch of field cameras.

It's pretty common that photography equipment fritzes out a bit during "supernatural" times like eclipses, but the damage was extensive enough to be noteworty

The Clan cats were initially notable just for the fact they had advanced culture.

Cats are usually comparable to crows and monkeys, in this universe. So cats with fire and a crude writing system were enough to SHAKE the field of zoology.

The fact they're cats helped a lot. The public loves cats, enough that since their discovery after Speckletail attacked a bulldozer, massive outcry has secretly helped the Clans several times.

The discovery that the culture also has Thaumatological elements is more of a goldmine for a scientist than the public, though.

It's common knowledge that "animals are magic," because humanity projects traits onto them. "Of course they do, they're cats...?"

The Thaumatologist is freaking out because "THE CAT IS PROVABLY DOING ITS OWN THAUMATURGY"

Most people don't know the difference between Thaumaturgy (the functional work it does on the world) and Thaumology (the study of that as a whole), so this particular scientist is going to have a hard time explaining WHY this distinction is so special.

(And possibly even offensive to certain groups, who would insist only humans are capable of this)

In any case, eventually there would be Thaumatological interest in the Clan cats, but they weren't there in the mid to late 2010s when BB!ASC takes place.

[bluebellowl]

I was thinking about Ingo’s home both in my Hilda crossover and just the Hisui pokemon canon. Taking heavy inspiration from Ainu people architecture and what else i could find regarding ancient houses on Hokkaido

People hc a lot that Ingo must have a cabin near Sneasler’s home, and that’s kinda what I wanted to explore here