No road, no trail can penetrate this forest. The long and delicate branches of its trees lie everywhere, choking space with their exuberant growth. No sunbeam can fly a path tortuous enough to navigate the narrow spaces between these entangled branches. All the trees of this dark forest grew from 100 billion seeds planted together. And, all in one day, every tree is destined to die.
This forest is majestic, but also comic and even tragic. It is all of these things. Indeed, sometimes I think it is everything. Every novel and every symphony, every cruel murder and every act of mercy, every love affair and every quarrel, every joke and every sorrow — all these things come from the forest.
How mapping neurons could reveal how experiences affect mental wiring by Sebastian Seung
Excerpt from Sebastian Seung’s book.
(via a-science-blog)
Click on image to see it rotate.
Alzheimer’s disease is marked by the abnormal accumulation of two proteins: plaques made of Beta-Amyloid (ABeta) and neurofibrillary tangles of phosphorylated Tau (P-Tau). This is a 3D image was taken of a section of tissue from a 14 month old mouse expressing the protein that leads to ABeta plaques. Green is a stain for microglia, immune cells of the brain which are migrating toward an ABeta plaque. Red is a stain for P-Tau, which has accumulated at the site of the plaque. Blue marks cell nuclei.
Location: Keyhole, Alpine Meadows. Skier: Kevin Thorley.
Tom’s dog partied a little too hard on NYE.
