dragontatuado

You could double the number of synaptic connections in a very simple neurocircuit as a result of experience and learning. The reason for that was that long-term memory alters the expression of genes in nerve cells, which is the cause of the growth of new synaptic connections. When you see that at the cellular level, you realize that the brain can change because of experience. It gives you a different feeling about how nature and nurture interact. They are not separate processes.

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—	Eric R. Kandel, Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist. A Quest to Understand How Memory Works. (via scipsy)

jtotheizzoe:

Björk’s Journey Within: Video For Biophilia’s ’Hollow’

The Biophilia project has been a true gift. From the iOS app it spawned to videos such as this, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more engaging multimedia exploration of where science meets art in today’s pop culture.

This video for the song “Hollow” is a collaboration with digital bio-artist Drew Berry, who is a bad-ass. Here’s my annotated story summary, but feel free to explore your own interpretations:

As we journey through the cytoplasm, past mitochondria, and into the twitching nuclear pore, we run into a lonely DNA-binding protein as it travels along the spiral path of the major groove in search of, well, something. As it passes wagging histone tails and dynamic nucleosomes, our green friend comes head-to-head with a mighty replication fork, thrown aside as leading and lagging strands are drawn through its replication machinery. A ghostly face, perhaps Björk’s ghost in her cellular machine, watches over as the protein is forced to wander on, alone, but not, to do whatever it is that little green proteins do.

Love this, more than you know. I’ll leave you with this line from the song:

The trunk of DNA
Now come forth
All species
Hollow

(via All Songs Considered)

blogyst:

Cow’s Sculpture by Miina Akkijyrkka. Made from car parts

2headedsnake:

12ozprophet.com

Takenori Fukaumi - Soda, (2008)

2headedsnake:

12ozprophet.com

Takenori Fukaumi - Soda, (2008)

nattonelli:

Ah Xian

Syria Under Siege: Photographs by Alessio Romenzi »

Syria is no longer sliding into war or staring at the abyss of warfare. Syria is at war. On assignment for TIME this week, photographer Alessio Romenzi risked his life documenting civilian casualties in Bab Amr, a district in the besieged city of Homs.

thenakedsundayproject:

Joel, 2011