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Written by | Egg fried rice Yang Owl Wang Shuo
Editor-in-charge | Yuki sauce
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1
The human cerebellum is not "small" and can be fully unfolded up to 1 meter
Image credit: pixabay
In general, we think that the size and surface area of the cerebellum are much smaller than those of the brain. But recently, a research team from San Diego State University in the United States found that the human cerebellum is not so "small". The team scanned a female cerebellar specimen using an ultra-high field 9.4-t magnetic resonance scanner and used a software they developed (freesurfer) to visualize the cerebellar cortex to a single lobe level. After calculations, the researchers found that the surface of the cerebellar cortex folded more tightly than the cerebral cortex. The fully unfolded cerebellum can form a strangely narrow strip about 10 cm wide and about 1 m long, with a total contraction-corrected surface area of 1590 cm2, equivalent to 78% of the total surface area of the human cerebral neocortex, exceeding the expected and previously reported values. In contrast, macaques account for about 33% of the total surface area of their neocortex. This suggests that the cerebellum plays an important role in the evolution of unique human behavior and cognition.
Article links:
https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2002896117
2
Ant teeth 100 million years ago actually looked like this!
If you've ever been bitten by an ant, do you remember its two powerful "teeth" (which are actually the mandible of an ant)? Recently, scientists found the oldest known ant in a 99 million-year-old amber: the haidomyrmecine and its prey, a cockroach larvae (caputoraptor elegans, now extinct), which firmly fixed the cockroach's neck between its two pointed "teeth" and the protruding "horns" of its head. Scientists speculate that hell ants can "strangle" prey by moving their mandibles up and down, while modern ants rely on moving their mandibles horizontally to grab prey. This amber not only clearly shows us the physical characteristics of hell ants in the Cretaceous period, but also restores a vivid prehistoric hunting scene.
Images and article links:
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/s0960-9822(20)31000-9
3
Bifocal contact lenses may improve myopia in adolescents
Many children now have less outdoor activities and are more likely to suffer from myopia. On Aug. 11, the new study, published in JAMA, may provide new ideas for correcting myopia. After a three-year clinical trial of nearly 300 children, the researchers found that bifocal contact lenses slowed the rate of myopia's deterioration by 43 percent compared to monosighted contact lenses. The reason is that these multifocal contact lenses move with the movement of the eyes, provide more focus in front of the retina than ordinary glasses, and can also solve the problem of some children who hurt their self-esteem by wearing glasses. In other words, bifocal contact lenses may no longer be just a patent for elderly eyes.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2769263
4
In terms of ingredients, crocodile tears are actually similar to those of humans
For most animals, tears do not mean expressing sadness, but rather better protect the eyes, as people often refer to as "crocodile tears". For a long time, researchers have only studied the tears of some mammals. A new study published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science recently analyzed tears in birds and reptiles and found that while birds and reptiles produce different tissue structures for tears, some of the electrolyte concentrations in tears are similar to those in humans, except that the crystal structures are organized differently to accommodate the environment in which they are located. The researchers say the study is critical to understanding evolutionary and adaptive processes and helps us discover new molecules of drugs that treat ophthalmology.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2020.00574/full
5
"The skin is tight and loose to you", pulling the skin, why is it deformed?
Image credit: Yuki
"The skin is tight again?" I'll give you pine skin"... Many bear children have received various "pine skin warnings" from their elders when they are young. This is not just a verbal threat, but a practical effect - whether it is external forces or internal tissue growth, our skin will be deformed accordingly when it is subjected to various pulls. This property has also been used for surgery to treat some birth defects. But why is this happening? The mechanism behind this was only recently revealed. A team of scientists from Belgium implanted an inflatable gel under the skin of mice to pull the skin of mice, and found that after the skin of mice was pulled, the arrangement of epidermal cells changed, and the volume was increased to cope with the pull. As the pull continues, the epidermal cells divide to expand. The researchers further studied the relevant genetic pathways and found that the MAL and YAP pathways are crucial in promoting epidermal growth.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02158-y
6
With this watch on, the doctor wouldn't have to draw my blood all the time
In general, due to individual differences, each person's level of metabolism and absorption of different drugs is also different. If doctors want to personalize and deliver drugs in a personalized manner, they need to understand the level of drugs in the patient's body in real time. How can this be done? Do you want to install a monitor on the patient? Recently, several researchers in the United States have really realized this idea. They designed a smartwatch that generates sweat by stimulating the wrist with a microcurrent, and then analyzes the drug levels within the sweat to assess the patient's response to the drug. The emergence of such technology is an important step in the realization of personalized medicine, and future doctors may be able to gradually get rid of complex blood tests and easily obtain various data of patients.
https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/07/22/2009979117