#phase separation

[bpod-bpod]

Inside Droplets

Phase separation – two distinct phases separating from a mixture, as vinegar and oil will from an undisturbed salad dressing – into droplets plays a role in the biochemical dynamics and signals within cells. This study uses computer modelling to understand the interaction of networks of the cell's structural protein actin with droplets of the actin binding protein VASP influences cytoskeletal architecture

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Aravind Chandrasekaran and colleagues

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Communications, April 2024

You can also follow BPoD on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

[didanawisgi]

By Doris Loh

“It takes a lot of courage to present the truth as it is.

A recently published review of melatonin, peer-reviewed of course, discusses the multi-faceted functions of melatonin that is obviously more than just an antioxidant [1].

Considering melatonin was used by living organisms before there was oxygen on earth for approximately 2 billion years [2] is enough to persuade me, at least, that melatonin has other important functions in addition to that of an antioxidant.

What is melatonin, if it is not only an antioxidant? Why did living organisms all produce melatonin when there was no need for an antioxidant for close to 2 billion years?

Is it possible that melatonin regulates phase separation?

For melatonin to effectively regulate phase separation, the amount needs to be quite high, as shown in multiple experiments that directly and indirectly demonstrate that melatonin can regulate phase separation, but at elevated doses [2.3,4].

If that is true, what does it mean for human clinical trials using 2 to 10 mg per subject?”

[1] Cardinali DP, Pandi-Perumal SR, Brown GM. Melatonin as a Chronobiotic and Cytoprotector in Non-communicable Diseases: More than an Antioxidant. Subcell Biochem. 2024;107:217-244. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-66768-8_11

[2] Loh D, Reiter RJ. The mitochondria chronicles of melatonin and ATP: Guardians of phase separation. Mitochondrial Communications. 2024;2:67-84.

[3] Loh, D.; Reiter, R.J. Light, Water, and Melatonin: The Synergistic Regulation of Phase Separation in Dementia. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24, 5835. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24065835

[4] Doris Loh, Russel J. Reiter. (2024). [Review Article] Melatonin, ATP, and Cataracts: The Two Faces of Crystallin Phase Separation. Qeios. doi:10.32388/D09YND.

Image created with BioRender.com

[fatedroses]

More than just the Demon.

[tangledinink]

[ start ] [ prev ] [ next ]

the gemini egg saga, part three

[slavhew]

toodeee

everything is transient. only an easy to draw guy is forever

[twinkodium]

heart eyes so big he can’t hide it 😍

[willyhoos]

metamy is insane. like.

what if i was the hero you loved gone wrong. defeated and destroyed. rebuilt as my own greatest enemy. what if i lost everything. what if i had been reprogrammed to despise all i had once fought for. what if i couldn't even remember why i had fought at all.

and what if you were made of roses. what if you represented every beautiful thing i once died trying to protect. what if you wore flowers in your hair and cared for small creatures and had eyes the color of the forests i used to call my home. what if you were everything i once loved.

those memories are just out of my reach. infuriatingly. maddeningly. but if anyone knows who i am (who i used to be) it's you. if anyone can make me feel like who i used to be (who i really am) it's you. i can't speak, i can't breathe, i can't remember anything (but you).

you are the world i have been ordered to burn. i am the weapon you have chosen to resist. i was (am) the hero that you loved.

you are my only memory.

i will do anything to make you believe me.

[the-sunlit-earth]

a lot of clipping to fix, but hey I got it moving at least! I'll get the Telvanni robe properly physic'd if it's the last thing I do >:0

[mrpenguinpants]

Hypothetical question but are we still into windbreaker (nii satoru)? Y'all cool if I put my hyper fixation on center stage?

[serpentface]

What's the Wardi cultural take on Akoshos sleeping with/partnering with/marrying other Akoshos?

It's not highly regulated to a degree that there are overwhelming cultural norms about it. There's a lot of societal focus on akoshos being theoretically suitable sexual partners for both men and women due to being dual-gendered, but not to an extent that relationships with One Another are stigmatized.

They also largely get to escape from the most severe concerns about penetrator/penetrated power dynamics because they're not regarded as Men (they're regarded as dual-gendered, and they're a female social class on every practical level), there's no status of manhood to Lose by receiving sexual penetration. The only real thing you see in that department is people assuming that one acts as 'the man' and one acts as 'the woman', but this is largely due to preoccupation with a notion of sex being Penetration With A Penis (and that Penetration With A Penis means that one person is in a Man's Role and one person is in a Woman's Role). But this will not be regarded as unnatural as in same-gender male relations, akoshos will Have to take up a position in this sexual dichotomy if they want to have Real Sex (Penetration With A Penis) with each other, and this is not unnatural and doesn't involve gaining or losing status since they are simultaneously male and female, not men.

So like you might see individual culture critics finding stuff to nitpick about it as their annoyance of the week or a singular Guy here or there who thinks it's weird, but this isn't a widespread norm. The vast majority of people don't give a shit about akoshos having sex with each other. The worst thing you're likely to experience Solely by virtue of being in an akoshos-akoshos relationship is someone asking you (probably with genuine curiosity) which one does the man stuff and which one does the woman stuff.

Akoshos also don't experience Hard expectations for marriage (though there are societal pressures that make marriage an attractive safety net all the same, ESPECIALLY marriage to a man) so unofficial life-partnerships between akoshos are pretty much the Only same gender partnerships between unwed people that are going to go unquestioned. ((Sworn brotherhood is technically a same gender life partnership for men that is Functionally similar to marriage (in that it's a kin-making practice between unrelated adults), but the tradition is Built upon the assumption that both parties will be married to women and that a primary goal of this kinship is to provide security for both parties' wives and children)). Marriage obligations in general are more lax in the economically secure but not Wealthy lower mercantile classes (as obligations to support and perpetuate one's family are universal, but these obligations can be filled simply by having at least One son who can get hitched, and marriages in the lower classes have no political functions and therefore there's less reason to ensure All your children are wed (there's still incentives like dowry, but this is not desperately needed when a family is economically secure)). So akoshos in this class group tend to have a Lot more freedom in terms of their life arrangements and chosen partners (though still experience the limiting frameworks of structural misogyny in other capacities).

The only thing that is out of the picture is akoshos/akoshos marriage. Marriage in this society has a predominantly reproductive function, the concept of reproductively non-viable marriages is generally considered absurd. This is not JUST this culture's form of homophobia, as marriage is a very practical arrangement at its core - both in a reproductive capacity and as bedrock for the patriarchal blood-kinship family system that forms the core social unit. The idea of same gender marriage isn't just absurd because 'ewwww weird' it's like, that Cannot work within this system, it Cannot fill core functions of what a marriage intends to do here, the ways on which marriage and kinship are BUILT makes same gender marriage practically (rather than just socially) untenable.

The sole exception to the 'marriage = reproductively viable" rule is that akoshos can be married to men (which in practice is almost always as a remarriage after a man has secured At Least an heir). This has a Little bit of internal logic here in that they perform predominantly female social roles (thus are suited to being a wife, even if they can't bear children) (and also on practical levels of them having the same legal status as women) but it's really more of a 'this is just how it's always been' kind of thing. A lot of the older pre-Wardi identity dual-gender roles that got mashed together under the 'akoshos' name would have involved marriage to a man as a second wife/concubine, in addition to his primary wife who would bear his children. Men potentially having multiple spouses has not been retained as a cultural practice, but the notion that an akoshos Can be a wife to a man has survived into modern day legal and doctrinal practices around marriage.

So like this being said, marriage as it is legally defined is only between a man and a woman, a man and an akoshos, or a woman and an akoshos. In practice the latter two are comparatively VERY rare- a man/akoshos marriage cannot provide children (though an akoshos can practically fulfill all other obligations and duties of a wife), a woman/akoshos marriage Can provide children (and while akoshos cannot function as a male heir, these children Will take their akoshos-parent's family name (though the wife retains her father's family name)), but akoshos are legally grouped with women in terms of rights and privileges (including being permanently under legal domain of their father unless they have been legally handed off to a male husband) and Cannot provide hard power patriarchal support that this family system is built upon and therefore depends upon, which makes these marriages socio-economically insecure. They can obviously still be a good partner and parent, but this is not the same as having the Legal hard power of a patriarch.

Akoshos marrying each other would be reproductively and socially nonviable, and is treated as a similarly absurd concept to a man marrying a man or a woman marrying a woman. It's just not a part of the marriage and kinship framework, it's not a thing that you can Do.

[time-wondroustime]

one thing I haven't seen anyone say about watcher yet, but has really disappointed me, is that only three months ago they mentioned in the truth about filming ghost files video that they had to let go of 5 (if I'm remembering the number properly) employees. and when I watched that video I was disappointed that hey hadn't planned the business properly to avoid things like that, but they are primarily creatives, so I figured there would be some business mistakes made along the way. but then hearing they just hired the 2 worth it guys and are reviving an expensive show... I feel like they could've prevented the lay offs better

[repurposedmeatlocker]

Y'all wanna know my deep dark secret?

I...kind of enjoy South Park.

[haleynwriter]

the choir version of 'like a prayer' from deadpool and wolverine is my new hyperfixation song so expect an elvar fic at some point titled 'in the midnight hour'

[saccharinerose]

Rhysand: I’m the Most Powerful High Lord Ever... but having the Night Court be night 24/7 is too hard 🥺

Tamlin, Tarquin, Kallias and Beron, able to eternally keep their respective courts in their season’s temperature (which is determined by the angle of the sun’s rays hitting the earth) and the plant-life in the same growth stage with their magic:

[skiddlecat]

in phase 1 of loop's fight they don't use rock paper or scissors craft but instead some secret fourth craft that looks like a four-pointed star. given that four-pointed stars are usually associated with the forgotten country and by extension wishes, does this imply that loop somehow figured out how to weaponize wish craft. aaaand post