Scientists have for the first time recorded individual brain cells in the act of summoning a spontaneous memory, revealing not only where a remembered experience is registered but how the brain is able to re-create it. The recordings, taken from the brains of epilepsy patients being prepared for surgery, demonstrate that these spontaneous memories reside in some of the very same neurons that fired most furiously when the recalled event was first experienced. Researchers had long theorized that this was the case but until now had only indirect evidence. The new study, experts said, has all but closed the case: Remembering, for the brain, is a lot like doing. The experiment, being reported Friday in the journal Science, moved beyond most earlier memory research in that it focused not on recognition of objects or recall of specific words or symbols but on free recall - whatever popped into people's heads when, in this case, they were asked to recall a series of short film clips they had just seen. Such memory often deteriorates quickly in people with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, and it is critical to so-called episodic memory: the rich catalog of vignettes that together form our remembered past.
Scientists have for the first time recorded individual brain cells in the act of summoning a spontaneous memory, revealing not only where a remembered experience is registered but how the brain is able to re-create it.
The recordings, taken from the brains of epilepsy patients being prepared for surgery, demonstrate that these spontaneous memories reside in some of the very same neurons that fired most furiously when the recalled event was first experienced. Researchers had long theorized that this was the case but until now had only indirect evidence.
The new study, experts said, has all but closed the case: Remembering, for the brain, is a lot like doing.
The experiment, being reported Friday in the journal Science, moved beyond most earlier memory research in that it focused not on recognition of objects or recall of specific words or symbols but on free recall - whatever popped into people's heads when, in this case, they were asked to recall a series of short film clips they had just seen. Such memory often deteriorates quickly in people with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, and it is critical to so-called episodic memory: the rich catalog of vignettes that together form our remembered past.
The fragrance used to mask bad metro smells in Paris isn't strong enough for the Berlin commuter rail. Transportation authorities have started sniff tests in a project to give the S-Bahn a new, refreshing odor. Smell something funny? The Berlin S-Bahn smells of many things, not all of them pleasant: wet umbrellas, body odor, unwashed dogs, kebab and currywurst, sometimes spilled beer or schnapps. But that may change. The Berlin Transportation Authority (BVG) has announced plans to lace the S-Bahn with its very own de-odoring odor. "A relevant test is being prepared," BVG spokesperson Burkhard Ahlert told the Berliner Zeitung Thursday. An employee dreamed up the idea to neutralize urban smells with an "S-Bahn perfume" contest, to find ways to improve the experience of commuters. The preliminary stages, underway soon, will involve "test sniffing," said Ahlert.
The fragrance used to mask bad metro smells in Paris isn't strong enough for the Berlin commuter rail. Transportation authorities have started sniff tests in a project to give the S-Bahn a new, refreshing odor.
Smell something funny? The Berlin S-Bahn smells of many things, not all of them pleasant: wet umbrellas, body odor, unwashed dogs, kebab and currywurst, sometimes spilled beer or schnapps.
But that may change. The Berlin Transportation Authority (BVG) has announced plans to lace the S-Bahn with its very own de-odoring odor. "A relevant test is being prepared," BVG spokesperson Burkhard Ahlert told the Berliner Zeitung Thursday.
An employee dreamed up the idea to neutralize urban smells with an "S-Bahn perfume" contest, to find ways to improve the experience of commuters. The preliminary stages, underway soon, will involve "test sniffing," said Ahlert.
sniff test, huh?
funky gig... ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
Seriously. Japanese subways are spotless, and they don't smell. Of anything. The cars are clean, the tracks are clean, the tunnels are clean, even the restrooms are clean.
Why? Because they actually hire cleaning staff, and give them the time necessary to do their jobs.
Drinking in public is allowed in Japan, but mostly, I suspect, because people don't actually drink in public. It's more along the lines of, "not banning something nobody does" than "tolerating something that's annoying."
As for food smells in stations, probably the most common in Japan is sweet breads and pastries being baked, oddly enough. Nobody complaining about that one.
I make the comment about cleaners never having been to Germany, but being well aware of the shocking disregard for basic public cleanliness everywhere in the US. Cleaning is maintenance, and maintenance doesn't pay the bills.
The BVG takes care of the U-Bahn, trams and busses.
I know! Tiring details that have to be explained to the reader! And so unimportant!
For those who speak German, here's the origininal Berliner Zeitung article, which does not get anything wrong.
A dog had to have 13 golf balls removed from its stomach after eating them on walks around a Fife course. Owner Chris Morrison had been taking five-year-old black labrador Oscar round the Pitreavie golf course in Dunfermline for several months. He took Oscar to the vet after noticing a rattling sound coming from his pet's stomach. They then discovered that 13 balls - each weighing 45 grams - were lodged in his stomach
A dog had to have 13 golf balls removed from its stomach after eating them on walks around a Fife course.
Owner Chris Morrison had been taking five-year-old black labrador Oscar round the Pitreavie golf course in Dunfermline for several months.
He took Oscar to the vet after noticing a rattling sound coming from his pet's stomach.
They then discovered that 13 balls - each weighing 45 grams - were lodged in his stomach
And where was the owner during all this? Clearly not paying attention to his dog.
The deafening engines that send motocross bikes shooting off jumps and tearing up hillsides have earned the cycles a bad reputation. But a German entrepreneur wants to rehabilitate the sport -- with an all-but-silent new engine. The Quantya is an electric motocross bike. Its silent motor might help redeem the sport's deafening bad-boy image. At first glance, the Quantya motocross bike doesn't leave a particularly tame impression. It looks like the usual cross-country motorbike, a vehicle for daredevils, the kind of riders who plow down muddy tracks and off high jumps with no regard for the natural world around them. And then, of course there's the noise: the motor's guttural RrrrraaaangtangtatatAAANG. Hardly any recreational sport has won so little acceptance in polite society. Yet the Quantya is different. It can take on rough terrain just as well -- and no less destructively to the ground it covers-- as traditional motocross bikes, but with a difference. The Quantya does it silently, moving almost as noiselessly a bicycle. What's the secret? The bike's power source is electricity, not gas.
The deafening engines that send motocross bikes shooting off jumps and tearing up hillsides have earned the cycles a bad reputation. But a German entrepreneur wants to rehabilitate the sport -- with an all-but-silent new engine.
The Quantya is an electric motocross bike. Its silent motor might help redeem the sport's deafening bad-boy image. At first glance, the Quantya motocross bike doesn't leave a particularly tame impression. It looks like the usual cross-country motorbike, a vehicle for daredevils, the kind of riders who plow down muddy tracks and off high jumps with no regard for the natural world around them. And then, of course there's the noise: the motor's guttural RrrrraaaangtangtatatAAANG. Hardly any recreational sport has won so little acceptance in polite society.
Yet the Quantya is different. It can take on rough terrain just as well -- and no less destructively to the ground it covers-- as traditional motocross bikes, but with a difference. The Quantya does it silently, moving almost as noiselessly a bicycle. What's the secret? The bike's power source is electricity, not gas.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/article1630897.ece
SCIENTISTS are trying to stop the most powerful experiment ever - saying the black holes it will create could destroy the world. ...Experts even predict that millions of tiny black holes will be produced -- baby brothers of the monsters gobbling up dust and stars at the heart of the galaxies. ...But the anti-CERN brigade accuse the scientists of playing God, warning that no one can guarantee that the black holes will not survive, rapidly growing in size to suck the Earth out of existence in an instant. But CERN, which includes several UK scientists, say their work is vital to unlock the secrets of matter that forms everything known in the universe.
But CERN, which includes several UK scientists, say their work is vital to unlock the secrets of matter that forms everything known in the universe.
Thanks you for that reference to Carman Laforet. I didn't know about her, and now I'll see if I can find one of her books. Sounds like an interesting writer perhaps.
