“Culture”-ally Stimulating Art. Even Mold Can Be Beautiful… 

Dear scientists,

Please, for the love of God, please, make your papers more understandable.

Fuck you

Sincerely,

A college student on the verge of tears

Study discovers that mitochondria transmit signals in the immune and nervous systems

The new study has revealed that mitochondria play a crucial role in the regulation of the NF-κB signaling pathway.

Mitochondria are primarily known as the powerhouse of the cell. However, these cellular organelles are required not only for providing energy: Professor Konstanze Winklhofer and her group at the Faculty of Medicine at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, recently discovered that mitochondria play an important role in signal transduction in innate immune pathways.

They regulate a signaling pathway that helps to eliminate pathogens, but can cause damage through inflammation upon overactivation. The research team published their findings in the EMBO Journal.

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ScienceAlert

Man Bitten by Stray Cat Contracts Infection Unknown to Science

The bite of a fluffy cat on the street can be more dangerous than you might think.

In the United Kingdom, a 48-year-old who was bit by a stray feline ended up contracting a species of bacterium that scientists have never seen before. His immune response to the foreign microorganism was a doozy. Just eight hours after receiving multiple bites, the man's hands had swollen to such a great extent that he took himself to the emergency department. His puncture wounds were cleaned and dressed and he was given a tetanus shot before being sent on his way with antibiotics. A day later, he was back at the hospital. His pinky and middle fingers on his left hand were painfully enlarged and both his forearms were red and swollen. Doctors had to surgically remove the damaged tissue around his wounds. He was also given three different antibiotics intravenously and was sent home with oral antibiotics. This time, thankfully, the treatment worked and he made a full recovery. Back at the hospital, however, doctors were busy trying to figure out what had happened. When they analyzed the microorganisms present in samples from his wounds, they found an unrecognizable Streptococcus-like organism.

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not to be positive on main but sometimes things really are ok. sometimes you really will be happy and safe and warm. sometimes you really will be giggly and blushy and full of love. sometimes the night is chilly and your home is cozy and your tea is perfectly steeped and your phone lights up with a message from someone you love. sometimes life really is quite lovely.

The zebrafish is used as model in developmental biology. Here two juvenile fish of just two days old. © MPI für Entwicklungsbiologie/ Jürgen Berger/ Mahendra Sonawane

via Frans de Waal - Public Page http://ift.tt/105kgEA

A door full of opportunities

Reminder that the "fittest" in "survival of the fittest" does not mean "strongest/most violent".

It refers to an animal that is best fitted to thriving in a given ecological niche. A fit animal is one that is successful at the tasks of finding food food and water, avoiding predators, and reproducing, by whatever means work best for their situation.

Antibodies are the secreted form of B-lymphocyte receptors and are a part of adaptive immunity, but how are these proteins formed?

Above is a diagram illustrating Paul Ehlrich’s Side Chain Theory of Antibody Formation. Ehlrich proposed that immunoglobulin molecules, a fundamental component of adaptive immunity, served as membrane bound proteins that bound to particular threats, similarly to the former “key in lock” view of enzymes in catalyzing biological reactions. Ehrlich also suggested that the action of binding a pathogenic molecule to the receptor would generate a signal to stimulate the production of more receptors of the same specificity. These “side chains” that were added on would then break off from the cell surface and become what we call antibodies.

 We now know, however, that soluble immunoglobulin receptors are specially manufactured to be secreted as antibody, rather than just “breaking off” of the lymphocyte, even though they have the same specificity as their membrane-bound counterparts.