View allAll Photos Tagged neuron
Human embryonic stem cells differentiated into dopaminergic neurons, which are the ones that degenerate in Parkinson's disease. Working with these cells in a lab dish provides a way to study the origins and possible treatments for Parkinson's disease.
This photo was taken by Jeannie Liu in the lab of Jan Nolta at the University of California, Davis.
Learn more about CIRM-funded stem cell research: www.cirm.ca.gov
Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have reached a milestone in their quest to catalog the brain’s “parts list.” The NIH BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN) issued its first data release in 2018. Posted on a public web portal for researchers, it profiles molecular identities of more than 1.3 million mouse brain cells and anatomical data from 300 mouse brains – among the largest such characterizations to date.
Researchers also identified mouse brain cells for mating, parenting and aggression. In this image, the same cluster of neurons (inside the blue square) is preferentially activated in virgin females, mothers and fathers displaying parenting behavior when exposed to mouse pups.
Read more: www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-brain-initiativ...
Credit: Drs. Catherine Dulac, Xiaowei Zhuang, Harvard University
NIH support from: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Human embryonic stem cells differentiated into dopaminergic neurons, which are the ones that degenerate in Parkinson's disease. Working with these cells in a lab dish provides a way to study the origins and possible treatments for Parkinson's disease.
This photo was taken by Jeannie Liu in the lab of Jan Nolta at the University of California, Davis.
this was taken in the Calgary International Airport before boarding -- it is one of those airport toys to occupy/entertain children or photographers....
This image cannot be used on websites, blogs or other media without explicit my permission. © All rights reserved
Optogenetics allows researchers to control specific cell types, such as these pyramidal cells, with light.
A new study in mice uncovered a previously unknown role that the central amygdala can play in upgrading or downgrading pain signals in the brain’s circuitry.
Read more: www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-study-mice-expl...
Credit: National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health/NIH
Scientists are increasingly uncovering evidence of cross-talk between the nervous system and the immune system in many diseases, including psoriasis. Neurons (red) in mouse skin communicate with dermal dendritic cells (green), a type of immune cell, to drive inflammation in psoriasis. This role of the nervous system presents a new pathway for researchers to develop treatments for psoriasis and possibly other inflammatory skin diseases.
Credit: Ulrich von Andrian, M.D., Ph.D., Harvard Medical School
This image is not owned by the NIH. It is shared with the public under license. If you have a question about using or reproducing this image, please contact the creator listed in the credits. All rights to the work remain with the original creator.
The GFP+ (green) neuron depicted is an embryonic radial glia stem cell.
These cells are found in an area called the ventricular zone during embryonic development and this area unsurprisingly flanks the ventricles of the brain.
These radial glia stem cells will give rise to neurons and glia.
Notice that there appears to be projections moving upwards (towards pial surface) and downwards (toward ventricle) from the soma of the stem cell. These are projections that are important to cellular migration of daughter cells and orienting the stem cell itself.
Image is a ~30 micron thick coronal section of the somatosensory cortex of an embryonic mouse brain.
Blue=DAPI (Binds DNA, marks nucleus)
Red = Pax6 (Transcription factor and marker of pluripotency)
Green = GFP (From jellyfish, used to identify affected cells in an experiment)
First of a new batch of code generated neuron images. Been tweaking the source code, and pushing the results a little.
More of my artwork can be found in my online portfolio
and some prints are available
Guru Shiva made from Columbus Neuron tubing. Carbon handlebars and brifters. Campagnolo Mirage gruppo. Go home MEBG, the internet's been won for the day.
A mouse neuron in the striatum imaged using a two-photon optical microscope allows researchers to measure changes to dendritic spines and their influence on addiction.
More information: irp.nih.gov/our-research/research-in-action/a-conviction-...
Credit: Veronica Alvarez, National Institutes of Health
Audio technology from a previous life, probably unfamiliar to many Flickr members...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fblikM3DJHw
Published as a cover of Neuron magazines Apr-2010
Crochet neurons that I've made for the "Knit a Neuron" project. They're my first ever bit of crochet!
A fluorescent microscopic image of numerous dopaminergic neurons (the type of neurons that are degenerated in Parkinson’s disease patients) generated from human embryonic stem cells. The neuronal cell bodies with axons are visible in green and the nuclei in blue.
This photo was taken in the lab of Xianmin Zeng at the Buck Institute for Age Research.
Learn more about CIRM-funded stem cell research: www.cirm.ca.gov
Cells within an injured mouse eye can be coaxed into regenerating neurons and those new neurons appear to integrate themselves into the eye’s circuitry, new research shows. The findings potentially open the door to new treatments for eye trauma and retinal disease.
Credit: Tom Reh, Ph.D.
This image is not owned by the NIH. It is shared with the public under license. If you have a question about using or reproducing this image, please contact the creator listed in the credits. All rights to the work remain with the original creator.
NIH support from: National Eye Institute
A picture of an immature PSA-NCAM positive neuron. It's from an old rat, which therefore has low levels of neurogenesis, which works out nicely because it allows you to more clearly see the dendrites, unobscured by those of neighboring cells.
l'attività elettrica di un singolo neurone, extracellular registration
2014
Nikon F-601
PhotoSì expired film
50mm f1.8
( Featured on front cover of Jain Digest )
There are several pathways to attaining Nirvana. It is the union of Right Knowledge, Right Faith and Right Conduct that eventually leads to Nirvana.
The central multicolored figure represents a neuron; it is the memory bank as well as the source of transmission of full spectrum of knowledge. There are several categories of knowledge. Every human being has intrinsic faculty to harvest them. Each of the knowledge is assigned a specific color. Green-derived from scriptures, blue-subjective cognition, red- super sensory perception, orange- reading the thoughts of others and light yellow-omniscience. Black indicates ignorance or lack of knowledge, which pervades the human kind resulting in the cycles of birth and death.
The light background reflects the aura that surrounds the person having righteous knowledge. One must appropriately apply it to start the process of attaining Nirvana.
Media: Acrylic & Pastel. Size: 24”x30”
Thin section of the optic lobe of a pupal Drosophila brain. Axons of photoreceptors (blue) and lamina neurons (green) bypass the lamina and project into different layers of the medulla (red, center), where the visual information is integrated and processed and further relayed to the lobula complex (red, bottom).
Credit: J. Luo, C.H. Lee, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, NIH
The white tiger or bleached tiger is a leucistic pigmentation variant of the mainland Asian tiger. It is reported in the wild from time to time in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, in the Sunderbans region and especially in the former State of Rewa. It has the typical black stripes of a tiger, but its coat is otherwise white or near-white and blue eyes.
Variation
The white Bengal tigers are distinctive due to the color of their fur. The white fur is caused by a lack of the pigment pheomelanin, which is found in Bengal tigers with orange color fur. When compared to Bengal tigers, the white Bengal tigers tend to grow faster and heavier than the orange Bengal tiger.[citation needed] They also tend to be somewhat bigger at birth, and as fully grown adults.[citation needed] White Bengal tigers are fully grown when they are 2–3 years of age. White male tigers reach weights of 200 to 230 kilograms (440 to 510 lb) and can grow up to 3 meters (9.8 ft) in length. As with all tigers, the white Bengal tiger's stripes are like fingerprints, with no two tigers having the same pattern. The stripes of the tiger are a pigmentation of the skin; if an individual were to be shaved, its distinctive coat pattern would still be visible.
For a white Bengal tiger to be born, both parents must carry the unusual gene for white colouring, which only happens naturally about once in 10,000 births. Dark-striped white individuals are well-documented in the Bengal tiger subspecies (Panthera tigris) as well as having been reported historically in several other subspecies. Currently, several hundred white tigers are in captivity worldwide, with about one hundred being found in India. Their unique white color fur has made them popular in entertainment showcasing exotic animals, and at zoos. Their rarity could be because the recessive allele is the result of a one-time mutation or because white tigers lack adequate camouflage, reducing their ability to stalk prey or avoid other predators. (Downes 2021)
Genetics
A white tiger's pale coloration is due to the lack of the red and yellow pheomelanin pigments that normally produce the orange coloration This had long been attributed to a mutation in the gene for the tyrosinase (TYR) enzyme. A knockout mutation in this gene results in albinism, the ability to make neither pheomelanin (red and yellow pigments) nor eumelanin (black and brown pigments), while a less severe mutation in the same gene in other mammals results in selective loss of pheomelanin, the so-called Chinchilla trait. The white phenotype in tigers had been attributed to such a Chinchilla mutation in tyrosinase, and in the past white tigers were sometimes referred to as 'partial albinos'. While whole genome sequencing determined that such a TYR mutation is responsible for the white lion leucistic variant, a normal TYR gene was found in both white tigers and snow leopards. Instead in white tigers a naturally-occurring point mutation in the SLC45A2 transport protein gene was found to underlie its pigmentation. The resultant single amino acid substitution introduces an alanine residue that protrudes into the transport protein's central passageway, apparently blocking it, and by a mechanism yet to be determined this prevents pheomelanin expression in the fur. Mutations in the same gene are known to result in 'cream' coloration in horses, and play a role in the paler skin of humans of European descent. This is a recessive trait, meaning that it is only seen in individuals that are homozygous for this mutation, and that while the progeny of white tigers will all be white, white tigers can be also bred from colored Bengal tiger pairs in which each possesses a single copy of the unique mutation. Inbreeding promotes recessive traits and has been used as a strategy to produce white tigers in captivity, but this has also resulted in a range of other genetic defects.
The stripe color varies due to the influence and interaction of other genes. Another genetic characteristic makes the stripes of the tiger very pale; white tigers of this type are called snow-white or "pure white". White tigers, Siamese cats, and Himalayan rabbits have enzymes in their fur which react to temperature, causing them to grow darker in the cold. A white tiger named Mohini was whiter than her relatives in the Bristol Zoo, who showed more cream tones. This may have been because she spent less time outdoors in the winter. Kailash Sankhala observed that white tigers were always whiter in Rewa State, even when they were born in New Delhi and returned there. "In spite of living in a dusty courtyard, they were always snow white." A weakened immune system is directly linked to reduced pigmentation in white tigers.
Stripeless tigers
An additional genetic condition can result in near-complete absence of stripes, making the tiger almost pure white. One such specimen was exhibited at Exeter Change in England in 1820, and described by Georges Cuvier as "A white variety of Tiger is sometimes seen, with the stripes very opaque, and not to be observed except in certain angles of light." Naturalist Richard Lydekker said that, "a white tiger, in which the fur was of a creamy tint, with the usual stripes faintly visible in certain parts, was exhibited at the old menagerie at Exeter Change about the year 1820." Hamilton Smith said, "A wholly white tiger, with the stripe-pattern visible only under reflected light, like the pattern of a white tabby cat, was exhibited in the Exeter Change Menagerie in 1820.", and John George Wood stated that, "a creamy white, with the ordinary tigerine stripes so faintly marked that they were only visible in certain lights." Edwin Henry Landseer also drew this tigress in 1824.
The modern strain of snow white tigers came from repeated brother–sister matings of Bhim and Sumita at Cincinnati Zoo. The gene involved may have come from a Siberian tiger, their part-Siberian ancestor Tony. Continued inbreeding appears to have caused a recessive gene to become homozygous and produce the stripeless phenotype. About one fourth of Bhim and Sumita's offspring were stripeless. Their striped white offspring, which have been sold to zoos around the world, may also carry the gene for the stripeless trait. Because Tony's genome is present in many white tiger pedigrees, the gene may also be present in other captive white tigers. As a result, stripeless white tigers have appeared in zoos as far afield as the Czech Republic (Liberec), Spain and Mexico. Stage magicians Siegfried & Roy were the first to attempt to selectively breed for stripeless tigers; they owned snow-white Bengal tigers taken from Cincinnati Zoo (Tsumura, Mantra, Mirage and Akbar-Kabul) and Guadalajara, Mexico (Vishnu and Jahan), as well as a stripeless Siberian tiger called Apollo.
In 2004, a blue-eyed, stripeless white tiger was born in a wildlife refuge in Alicante, Spain. Its parents are normal orange Bengals. The cub was named "Artico" ("Arctic").
Defects
Outside of India, inbred white tigers have been prone to crossed eyes, a condition known as strabismus, due to incorrectly routed visual pathways in the brains of white tigers. When stressed or confused, all white tigers cross their eyes. Strabismus is associated with white tigers of mixed Bengal and Siberian ancestry. The only pure-Bengal white tiger reported to be cross-eyed was Mohini's daughter Rewati. Strabismus is directly linked to the white gene and is not a separate consequence of inbreeding.
The orange litter-mates of white tigers are not prone to strabismus. Siamese cats and albinos of every species which have been studied all exhibit the same visual pathway abnormality found in white tigers. Siamese cats are also sometimes cross-eyed, as are some albino ferrets. The visual pathway abnormality was first documented in white tigers in the brain of a white tiger called Moni after he died, although his eyes were of normal alignment. The abnormality is that there is a disruption in the optic chiasm. The examination of Moni's brain suggested the disruption is less severe in white tigers than it is in Siamese cats. Because of the visual pathway abnormality, by which some optic nerves are routed to the wrong side of the brain, white tigers have a problem with spatial orientation, and bump into things until they learn to compensate. Some tigers compensate by crossing their eyes. When the neurons pass from the retina to the brain and reach the optic chiasma, some cross and some do not, so that visual images are projected to the wrong hemisphere of the brain. White tigers cannot see as well as normal tigers and suffer from photophobia, like albinos.
Other genetic problems include shortened tendons of the forelegs, club foot, kidney problems, arched or crooked backbone and twisted neck. Reduced fertility and miscarriages, noted by "tiger man" Kailash Sankhala in pure-Bengal white tigers, were attributed to inbreeding depression. A condition known as "star-gazing" (the head and neck are raised almost straight up, as if the affected animal is gazing at the stars), which is associated with inbreeding in big cats, has also been reported in white tigers.
There was a 200 kg (450 lb) male cross-eyed white tiger at the Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo in Hawaii, which was donated to the zoo by Las Vegas magician Dirk Arthur. There is a picture of a white tiger which appears to be cross-eyed on just one side in the book Siegfried and Roy: Mastering the Impossible. A white tiger, named Scarlett O'Hara, who was Tony's sister, was cross-eyed only on the right side.
A male tiger named 'Cheytan', a son of Bhim and Sumita who was born at the Cincinnati Zoo, died at the San Antonio Zoo in 1992, from anaesthesia complications during root canal therapy. It appears that white tigers also react strangely to anaesthesia. The best drug for immobilizing a tiger is CI 744, but a few tigers, white ones in particular, undergo a re-sedation effect 24–36 hours later. This is due to their inability to produce normal tyrosinase, a trait they share with albinos, according to zoo veterinarian David Taylor. He treated a pair of white tigers from the Cincinnati Zoo at Fritz Wurm's safari park in Stukenbrock, Germany, for salmonella poisoning, which reacted strangely to the anaesthesia.
Mohini was checked for Chédiak–Higashi syndrome in 1960, but the results were inconclusive. This condition is similar to albino mutations and causes bluish lightening of the fur color, crossed eyes, and prolonged bleeding after surgery. Also, in the event of an injury, the blood is slow to coagulate. This condition has been observed in domestic cats, but there has never been a case of a white tiger having Chédiak–Higashi syndrome. There has been a single case of a white tiger having central retinal degeneration, reported from the Milwaukee County Zoo, which could be related to reduced pigmentation in the eye. The white tiger in question was a male named Mota on loan from the Cincinnati Zoo.
There is a myth that white tigers have an 80% infant mortality rate. However, the infant mortality rate for white tigers is no higher than it is for normal orange tigers bred in captivity. Cincinnati Zoo director Ed Maruska said:
"We have not experienced premature death among our white tigers. Forty-two animals born in our collection are still alive. Mohan, a large white tiger, died just short of his 20th birthday, an enviable age for a male of any subspecies, since most males live shorter captive lives. Premature deaths in other collections may be artifacts of captive environmental conditions...in 52 births we had four stillbirths, one of which was an unexplained loss. We lost two additional cubs from viral pneumonia, which is not excessive. Without data from non-inbred tiger lines, it is difficult to determine whether this number is high or low with any degree of accuracy."
Ed Maruska also addressed the issue of deformities:
"Other than a case of hip dysplasia that occurred in a male white tiger, we have not encountered any other body deformities or any physiological or neurological disorders. Some of these reported maladies in mutant tigers in other collections may be a direct result of inbreeding or improper rearing management of tigers generally."
Inbreeding and outcrossing
Because of the extreme rarity of the white tiger allele in the wild, the breeding pool was limited to the small number of white tigers in captivity. According to Kailash Sankhala, the last white tiger ever seen in the wild was shot in 1958. Today there is a large number of white tigers in captivity. A white Amur tiger may have been born at Center Hill and has given rise to a strain of white Amur tigers. A man named Robert Baudy realized that his tigers had white genes when a tiger he sold to Marwell Zoo in England developed white spots, and bred them accordingly. The Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa Bay had four of these white Amur tigers, descended from Robert Baudy's stock.
It has also been possible to expand the white-gene pool by outcrossing white tigers with unrelated orange tigers and then using the cubs to produce more white tigers. The white tigers Ranjit, Bharat, Priya and Bhim were all outcrossed, in some instances to more than one tiger. Bharat was bred to an unrelated orange tiger named Jack from the San Francisco Zoo and had an orange daughter named Kanchana. Bharat and Priya were also bred with an unrelated orange tiger from Knoxville Zoo, and Ranjit was bred to this tiger's sister, also from Knoxville Zoo. Bhim fathered several litters with an unrelated orange tigress named Kimanthi at the Cincinnati Zoo. ankam Ranjeeth had several mates at the Omaha Zoo.
The last descendants of Bristol Zoo's white tigers were a group of orange tigers from outcrosses which were bought by a Pakistani senator and shipped to Pakistan. Rajiv, Pretoria Zoo's white tiger, who was born in the Cincinnati Zoo, was also outcrossed and sired at least two litters of orange cubs at Pretoria Zoo. Outcrossing is not necessarily done with the intent of producing more white cubs by resuming inbreeding further down the line. Outcrossing is a way of bringing fresh blood into the white strain. The New Delhi Zoo loaned out white tigers to some of India's better zoos for outcrossing, and the government had to impose a whip to force zoos to return either the white tigers or their orange offspring.
Siegfried & Roy performed at least one outcross. In the mid-1980s they offered to work with the Indian government in the creation of a healthier strain of white tigers. The Indian government reportedly considered the offer; however, India had a moratorium on breeding white tigers after cubs were born at New Delhi Zoo with arched backs and clubbed feet, necessitating euthanasia. Siegfried & Roy have bred white tigers in collaboration with the Nashville Zoo.
To better preserve genetic diversity and avoid genetic defects, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums barred member zoos from intentionally breeding to produce white tigers, white lions, or king cheetahs in a white paper adopted by the board of directors in July 2011. The paper explains that selecting for or against any particular allele would result in a loss of genetic diversity. Instead, the alleles should be maintained at their natural frequencies. Inbreeding to produce abnormal appearances can also produce congenital defects that impact health and welfare. Sometimes the traits themselves can cause problems, such as albinism's visual and neural effects. Additionally, animals with an abnormal appearance do not serve as well as ambassadors for their species in the zoos' mission to educate the public.
Neurons (red) converted from glial cells using a new NeuroD1-based gene therapy in mice.
It’s a race against time when someone suffers a stroke caused by a blockage of a blood vessel supplying the brain. Unless clot-busting treatment is given within a few hours after symptoms appear, vast numbers of the brain’s neurons die, often leading to paralysis or other disabilities. Thanks to gene therapy, some encouraging strides are now being made towards being able to replace those lost neurons.
In a recent study in Molecular Therapy, NIH-funded researchers reported that, in their mouse and rat models of ischemic stroke, gene therapy could actually convert the brain’s glial (support) cells into new, fully functional neurons. Even better, after gaining the new neurons, the animals had improved motor and memory skills.
Read more on the NIH Director's Blog: directorsblog.nih.gov/2019/09/24/gene-therapy-shows-promi...
Credit: Chen Laboratory, Penn State, University Park
NIH support from: National Institute on Aging; National Institute of Mental Health
Usually you don't see immature neurons in the superficial layers of the dentate gyrus. I think this happens more in mice than in rats. Sometimes I see them all the way in the molecular layer.
A major aim of the NIH-led Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative is to develop new technologies that allow us to look at the brain in many different ways on many different scales.
Here you get a close-up look at pyramidal neurons located in the hippocampus, a region of the mammalian brain involved in memory. While this tiny sample of mouse brain is densely packed with many pyramidal neurons, researchers used new ExLLSM technology to zero in on just three. This super-resolution, 3D view reveals the intricacies of each cell’s structure and branching patterns.
Read more on the NIH Director's Blog: bit.ly/2TSOng1
Credit: Yang Lab/University of California and K. Chung/MIT
NIH support from: NIMH, NINDS, and NIBIB
The pond on my parents' farm was hovering on the boundary between freezing and thawing for several days when we noticed that hundreds of these neuron-shaped fissures formed in the ice. Each was seeded by a leaf or some other object at the center.
A mouse CA1 pyramidal cell (green) is being contacted by a neurogliaform inhibitory interneuron (red). Credit: McBain Laboratory, NICHD/NIH
GFP expressing neurons in the Drosophila larval (maggot) body wall. This picture was snapped from a live specimen using epiflourescence microscope equipped with an EM-CCD camera.
Questa mattina, in auto, nel solito tragitto casa-lavoro, con l’autoradio che mi tempestava di canzoncine allegre e i due neuroni del cervello che si nascondevano sotto le lenzuolina dei loro lettini, sono riuscita a fare ben due pensieri distinti e in qualche modo li ho cuciti fra loro.
Pensierino numero 1:
Quando ero piccola volevo fare la scrittorA, e infatti sono una ragionierA.
Nonostante questo, come dire, poco coerente cammino, devo ammettere che sono riuscita a diventare una quasi-scrittorA, anche se tendo a mettere sempre un sacco di numeri nei miei testi…
Alla mia scuola, però, oltre a questo uso compulsivo di numeri devo riconoscere un pregio:
mi ha insegnato a ragionare.
Che uno dice ‘eccheccazzo, hai fatto ragioneria, se non ragioni tu chi ragiona?’
E a quell’uno mi verrebbe da rispondere ‘oh ma fatti un po’ i cazzi tuoi!’ ma siccome sono una personcina carina e gentile spiegherò cosa significa ‘ragionare’.
Nonostante si parli del tempo delle pietre e si andasse ancora a scuola a cavallo dei mammuth, mi ricordo, come fosse ieri, una lezione di ragioneria, che mi ha ‘segnato’ più di tutte le altre.
La prof., che, diciamo, non era un pezzo di pane, e infatti c’è ancora chi se la sogna di notte e si sveglia con i capelli bianchi e poi fa colazione col Maalox, la prof., dicevo, ci disse:
‘oggi facciamo finta di diventare gestori di un negozio di abbigliamento’.
Allora cominciammo ‘comperiamo i jeans!’ e la prof. ‘bene, li mettiamo per terra, sul corso…’
Allora un altro disse ‘comperiamo gli scaffali!’ e la prof. ‘mettiamo anche gli scaffali sul corso’, un altro ‘affittiamo un negozio!’ e la prof. ‘con che soldi?’ e una ragazza ‘andiamo a prenderli in banca!’ e la prof. ‘e in banca danno i soldi a tutti?’ e così via.
Quel giorno più di ogni altro mi insegnò a ‘ragionare’, a guardare sotto il tappeto degli argomenti, dietro gli stipiti delle discussioni, insomma mi insegnò che bisogna farsi mille domande e curiosare e non smettere di chiedere, prima di dire ‘sì, si può fare’.
Il secondo pensierino era meno complesso:
io sono una sempliciotta.
Comunque sia, ragioneria e ragionamenti compresi, io sono così ‘basica’ e ‘beccona’ che la prima reazione alla frase ‘guarda, c’è un asino che vola!’ è: ‘dove? Dove?’ solo dopo comincio con la sfilza di domande:
ma quanto vola? E le ali che apertura hanno? Ma l’asino raglia? E come si nutre? Ma se fa la cacca dove cade che non si vedono cacche di asino in giro? Alla fine capisco che, tanto per cambiare, mi hanno preso il culo, per usare un eufemismo…
il collegamento dei due pensierini è un volo pindarico, ve lo dico subito.
E’ così assurdo che quasi quasi un asino che vola non è così impossibile…
Al telegiornale hanno parlato di un bambino appena nato, problemi fisici così estesi che i dottori hanno dichiarato ‘la morte è la sua salvezza’.
Non entro nell’argomento, perché non è quello l’argomento, è stata solo la ‘miccia’ per il pensiero-pindarico.
Il mio cervellino, dopo la solita fase ‘sempliciotta’ (oddiooddiooddio) ha cominciato a pensare:
quando è stato tempo di votare, tutti si sono tappati il naso, altri non se lo sono tappato, altri hanno volontariamente votato l’attuale Governo.
Personalmente, ogni volta che vado a votare, ci sono delle domande che mi faccio:
quale delle due correnti politiche garantirà la sanità pubblica?
Quale delle due correnti politiche non renderà la scuola privata o, per lo meno cercherà di non farla per pochi eletti?
Quali delle due correnti politiche cercherà di dare opportunità alle persone disagiate, meno abbienti, con problemi fisici?
Quali delle due correnti politiche,anche se solo in maniera parziale, guarderà l’uomo prima del denaro?
Quando mi sono data la risposta a queste domande, allora voto.
Che, sia ben chiaro, in questo caso non era un voto facile per altri motivi: il senso di appartenenza non c’era. Ma non mi viene in mente neanche per due secondi di votare una corrente politica che non risponde affermativamente alle domande di cui sopra.
Torniamo al volo pindarico:
il bambino appena nato è stato tolto alla famiglia, il giudice ha detto che dovrà continuare a vivere, i medici stessi hanno dichiarato che sarà una sofferenza continua per quell’esserino.
E così mi sono detta:
l’attuale Governo lotterà, con la sua amica Chiesa, per togliere o ‘abortire’ la 194;
l’attuale governo però farà di tutto per privatizzare la Sanità;
l’attuale Governo farà scuole per pochi e ‘taglierà’ gli ultimi pezzetti di assistenza ai ragazzini con problemi, che torneranno ad essere i ‘paria’ della Società;
l’attuale Governo è per il soldo, per la competizione, per il bello e il sano e non darà opportunità a chi vuole cooperare, lavorare in gruppo, non guarda al lato estetico e magari ha problemi fisici;
quindi, l’attuale Governo:
farà nascere bambini con gravi problemi fisici, al limite della disperazione;
i genitori dovranno pagare di tasca propria le cure, l’assistenza, ecc.;
non avranno possibilità, in caso i problemi non fossero totali, di mandarlo in una scuola pubblica, perché non ci saranno insegnanti che potranno occuparsi di loro;
i bambini diventeranno un ‘peso’ per la Società e come tali saranno trattati.
Ergo:
chi ha votato l’attuale Governo forse doveva fare qualche lezione di ragioneria con la mia prof. ‘prima’….non avendo avuto tale possibilità ora dovrà pregare tutti i Santi (magari potrà farsi consigliare dal Papa quelli più ‘attivi’) che la salute sia sempre dalla sua, e che non abbia un problema uno, o si pentirà di essere nato.
Chi ha votato l’attuale Governo perché i Rom sono brutti e cattivi, i gay sono brutti e cattivi, gli extra-comunitari sono brutti e cattivi, insomma sono tutti brutti e cattivi, sarà il caso si guardi allo specchio e si faccia una sola domanda: cosa sarà di me, se avrò una malattia grave, di lunga durata, che richiederà cure costose, assistenza, e non potrò lavorare, e non potrò garantire uno stipendio che mantenga la mia famiglia?
Una
Sola
Domanda
La risposta non è 42, per una volta…
Poi per fortuna sono arrivata al lavoro e mi sono data ai numeri, che, in sostanza, sono meno imbecilli di noi uomini.
Amen.
In mice with a particular ALS-causing mutation, a hyperactive enzyme called Cdk5 normally kills spinal cord neurons (pictured above). New IRP research has identified a promising way to reign in Cdk5 to prevent those toxic effects.
Read more: irp.nih.gov/blog/post/2019/11/reining-in-runaway-enzyme-h...
Credit: S. Jeong, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH
Hand stitched and bound shibori techniques on habotai silk
Image: Pinegate Photographics, Cardiff
Endogenous, meaning ‘from within’, refers to her own Endogenous Depression, but also to the act of giving her inner-most feelings a physical form. This series of sculptures has become the means by which she externalises her continuing battle with depression. Whilst the sculptures represent her inner self, bound by the constraints of depression, their inherent purity and beauty are a testament to the new confidence and inner peace she has gained through her art.
The act of hand stitching and binding the fabric is as important to her as the resulting sculpture. The concept of “the hand healing the mind” is a significant aspect of her work; the repetitive rhythmical action of stitching or binding the cloth being a meditative one. By becoming “one with the cloth” one is taken out of oneself. The act of engaging with the cloth removes one from depressive self-absorption. The realisation of her own depression has led to her preoccupation with how other sufferers envision their own condition. Her resolve is to explore/record these through an extensive series of sculptural pieces.
Her work records the actions found within shibori; stitching, binding, gathering, manipulating and folding - not through the expected dye process, but purely as texture and form. It was whilst in Japan as part of her Embroiderers' Guild mature scholarship studies (May/June 2002) that she first observed the artisans who had spent their entire lives manipulating cloth prior to its being dyed. As a trained musician, she was fascinated to see that the repetitive shibori actions were not only represented on the cloth as pattern and texture, but were also imprinted upon the artisans hands and minds. She wished to learn more about these traditional techniques in order that these skills would not be lost with the passing generations, whilst at the same time developing her own personal shibori vocabulary suitable for the 21st Century.
An NIH study has uncovered specialized mouse neurons that play a unique role in pain.
More information: www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-study-uncovers-...
Credit: Jeremy and Nichole Swan