Building machines which mimic the capacities of biological brains –and of the human brain in particular– is one of the main challenges of modern science. With the fast development of computer speed and power in the second half of the past century, this goal seemed, in the early days of artificial intelligence, simply a matter […]
You have probably heard this sentence: “the brain is the most complex organ in the universe”. Let´s dive inside such assertion to get a deeper feeling. The human brain contains around 86.000 million of neurons distributed across a bunch of brain areas ( roughly 190 ). That´s one thing, not everything. Even more complex is […]
The study of the spontaneous activity in the brain –and its origin– is one of the major puzzles in modern neural science. In many situations, the same neurons which behave smoothly and in an easily predictable way in in vitro experimental conditions, turn into unpredictable units, firing spikes irregularly and even chaotically, when they are […]
Modern societies are growing old and we should be proud of such great accomplishment. Substantial improvement in hygiene, health and nutrition has allowed mankind to even surpass a three-digit age. Leaving any further social consideration aside, seems obvious that life sciences will have to make a big effort to understand the so called healthy ageing […]
Biochemistry • Biomedicine • Molecular biology • Neurobiology
Natural selection has been sculpturing living organisms for millions of years, enabling them to get adapted to an ever-changing environment. Gradually, certain traits are selected over others based on the advantage they confer to the population. Natural selection is not a random process and it relies on genetic variation. Random mutations serve as the substrate […]
Some weeks ago in Naukas.com I wrote (in Spanish) about the wonderful latest video released by the team responsible for the Inner Life of a Cell which deals with the intricacies of cell trafficking in the inside of a neuron. Today I want to discuss an article recently published in the journal Science and that […]
Most people have experienced how does it feel when dipping a finger into boiling water or swallowing while having tonsil inflammation. Pain may be annoying, but it is an essential protective mechanism because it warns us against potential tissue damage. This necessary role in survival is illustrated by the shortened life expectancy seen in individuals […]
Let’s try a little game. If I’d show you only parts of a famous building: a column, part of a wall, the ceiling…Would you be able to tell me which building it is I am telling you about? Most likely not. With these elements you could still doubt whether I am talking about an old […]
In a previous article I wrote about the high speed attacks of the mantis shrimps. However, my favourite feature of these crustaceans is their unique eyes. They have two apposition compound eyes, typical of many diurnal insects and crustaceans but unusual in how freely they can move on their stalks. The eye forms an image […]
Competition, evidence suggests, is a constant in nature. Looking from the largest to the smallest structures that Mankind has been able to observe, one can easily find examples: in clusters of galaxies (in which sometimes galaxies compete with each other to pull in the matter from their outer regions), stars (like binary systems with planetary […]