MI weekly selection #338
Near-death experiences may be linked to REM sleep disorders
Many people who report having had near-death experiences also report having had REM sleep disorder symptoms. REM is the sleep phase that features vivid dreaming, and researchers say a combination of the waking and REM states could be linked to the near-death experiences.
Jellyfish-like robot could help deliver medication inside body
Researchers are developing a minuscule robot that looks similar to a jellyfish that could deliver drugs to specific sites in the body. The tiny robots could swim through the body, depositing medication to precise locations then either degrade on their own or be excreted.
Single atoms viewed with new MRI technique
Researchers have developed a microscope that uses a magnetic resonance imaging technique capable of seeing single atoms within a sample. The scanning tunneling microscope has magnetized iron atoms added to its tip, merging MRI and microscope imaging technologies.
Macaques’ vision cells can detect both color and shape
Vision cells in the brains of macaques respond to both shape and color. Researchers monitored vision cells in the monkeys’ brains by tweaking genes to make active nerve cells glow.
Researchers find 60 subglacial lakes under ice sheet in Greenland
As many as 60 subglacial lakes have been discovered underneath Greenland’s ice sheet, up from the four previously known. “This is important for determining their influence on the wider subglacial hydrological system and ice-flow dynamics, and improving our understanding of the ice sheet’s basal thermal state,” says Jade Bowling, lead author of a study on the find.