Insect poetry, conquering rats, and more stories you might have missed this week
Have we gotten bird evolution all wrong? Why did scientists make mouse brains glow? And how did thousands upon thousands of skeletons vanish from Napoleonic-era battlefields? Check out the answers below in some of our favorite selections from
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A new way to light up oxygen in the brain
We need to breathe because our cells do, too. Brain cells, for example, use about one-fifth of all the oxygen your body consumes. But scientists know relatively little about what oxygen flow in the brain looks like because it’s quite tricky to track the tiny molecules moving through living tissues. Last week in
Science
, however, researchers described an illuminating new technique that allowed them to
visualize in real time oxygen flowing in a mouse’s brain
.
When researchers dialed up the oxygen in the air, the brains of engineered mice glowed brighter—demonstrating that the technique accurately reflects changes in oxygen levels.
University of Copenhagen
Using a modified version of an enzyme that fireflies use to glow, the scientists engineered mouse brain cells that light up in the presence of oxygen. The team was able to crack open the skulls of living, awake mice and watch their brain cells shine bright and then fade into afterglow in response to oxygen fluctuations. Using this method, res...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research
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