33 posts · 27,180 views
The four blind men could not understand what kind of an animal an elephant was. Only if they corroborated their findings amongst themselves, a clear picture could emerge. In science, such integration and corroboration is vital. That's what I am set to do in my blog, marrying physics to physiology in the hope that they would live happily ever after.
Amiya
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- November 26, 2008
- 12:00 AM
- 1,252 views
Electron Microscopy And Graphene
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
Richard Feynman onced remarked that there's plenty of room at the bottom. Indeed, with the aid of electron microscopy and nanotechnology we have realized this. Here, the mechanisms of electron microscopy and its much awaited substrate, 'graphene' is discussed.... Read more »
John Silcox. (2008) Microscopy: Spot the atom. Nature, 454(7202), 283-284. DOI: 10.1038/454283a
- November 20, 2008
- 02:00 PM
- 1,211 views
Hearing Involves Sound Physics
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
The way we hear sound is complex. The different attributes of sound (namely, intensity, frequency, the direction from which it is coming etc.) are faithfully perceived in the auditory cortex. The whole procedure may seem rather straightforward, but it is far more complicated than what looks so deceptively simple.The sound waves (say from an orchestra) impinge on our eardrums. Sound waves are mechanical waves consisting of condensation and rarefaction, things we learned in our school days. These ........ Read more »
P. Martin. (2001) Compressive nonlinearity in the hair bundle's active response to mechanical stimulation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98(25), 14386-14391. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.251530498
- November 26, 2008
- 12:00 AM
- 1,190 views
Neural Networking, Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Share a Few Things
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
In the hippocampus, the part of brain that processes memory, has a neural architecture that resembles Hopfield network of artificial intelligence. This LAN like architecture is synchronized with cues from within the brain and outside. The brain thus has some similarities with information theory.... Read more »
E . Menschik. (2003) Neuromodulatory control of hippocampal function: towards a model of Alzheimer''s disease . . Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, 99-121.
E . Menschik. (2003) Neuromodulatory control of hippocampal function: towards a model of Alzheimer''s disease . . Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, 99-121.
- December 9, 2008
- 02:44 PM
- 1,153 views
Fantastic Fluorescence:Brainbow and The Nobel Prize 2008
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
In my childhood, I used to be fascinated by the mysterious glow of fireflies. Later I learned that it was due to a reaction between a substance called Luciferin and an enzyme, luciferase, a phenomenon called bioluminescence. This kind of glow is not limited to land creatures. Creatures living at the bottom of oceans too emit light.Osamu Shimomura of Japan was given the task of isolating the substance which let the marine mollusk Cipridina glow when it was crushed and mixed with water. He succeed........ Read more »
Stuart Cantrill. (2008) Nobel Prize 2008: Green fluorescent protein. Nature Chemistry. DOI: 10.1038/nchem.75
- January 11, 2009
- 02:06 PM
- 1,153 views
Visualizing Viral Kinetics Using Fluorescence and Bioluminescence
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
It would be nice if we could see an individual virus particle, a virion, in real time within a mammalian tissue starting from its attachment to the host cell and entry, to its assembly and budding and release. The dynamics of viral production has been studied using computational models by noting the response of the virus to exogenous administration of reverse transcriptase and protease inhibitors. It was noted that a mind boggling 10^10 to 10^11 virions are produced each day by using this mathe........ Read more »
A Asokan, J S Johnson, C Li, & R J Samulski. (2008) Bioluminescent virion shells: new tools for quantitation of AAV vector dynamics in cells and live animals. Gene Therapy, 15(24), 1618-1622. DOI: 10.1038/gt.2008.127
- November 26, 2008
- 12:00 AM
- 1,147 views
Molecular Basis of Genetic Switch In The Circadian Clock
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
The circadian clock keeps time by switching on and off a genetic switch. The intricacies of the master clock in the hypothalamus is described here.... Read more »
J.-C. Leloup. (2003) Toward a detailed computational model for the mammalian circadian clock. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(12), 7051-7056. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1132112100
- November 26, 2008
- 12:00 AM
- 1,088 views
Scientists Simulate Learning In Amoeba Using Memristor
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
Amoeba, a unicellular organism, learns and remembers from environmental cues such as temperature variation. This 'cognitive' behavior of amoeba has been simulated in an electronic circuit, employing a brand new 'passive' electronic component called 'memristor'.... Read more »
Tetsu Saigusa, & Yoshiki Kuramoto. (2008) Amoebae Anticipate Periodic Events. Physical Review Letters, 100(1). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.018101
- November 26, 2008
- 12:00 AM
- 1,087 views
Smelling The Intentions Of Olfaction
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
Olfaction or smelling is rather fishy. It is important to life; and for Toxoplasma gondii, to propagate their species. In humans, surprisingly, it bypasses the thalamus, unlike other sensations which obediently pass through it. Theres even a quantum touch to it!... Read more »
Jennifer C. Brookes, Filio Hartoutsiou, A. P. Horsfield, A. M. Stoneham. (2006) Could humans recognize odor by phonon assisted tunneling?. arXiv:physics/0611205v1 .
- September 7, 2008
- 11:33 AM
- 1,052 views
Learning Memory Lessons From Aplysia
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
While you are reading this on your computer, there may be many distractions in the background. Your mom may be shouting at someone or your daughter may be receiving her piano lessons. But after you finished reading this, no memory trace of this background remains. They are not registered with your memory. We seem to ignore this 'negative memory' by a process called 'habituation'. We remember by consolidating memories by another process known as 'sensitization'. But what is this that we call memo........ Read more »
C. Bailey, & M Chen. (1983) Morphological basis of long-term habituation and sensitization in Aplysia. Science, 220(4592), 91-93. DOI: 10.1126/science.6828885
- May 8, 2008
- 12:00 AM
- 1,037 views
HistoMag: Nanomaterials in Medical Physics
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
Long ago when I used to be a medical student, my Anatomy teacher said that the breasts were an ornament to a lady and it gave motherhood to a woman. The words still reverberate in my ears. This aesthetic organ is frequently targeted by cancer. Put in other way, cancer of the breast is the second most common cancer worldwide (lung cancer tops the list) among both the sexes, and the most common type of cancer in women.Diagnosing cancerous cells have been a nightmare for pathologists. We can not de........ Read more »
Elza Friedländer, Donna Arndt-Jovin, Péter Nagy, Thomas Jovin, János Szöllősi, & György Vereb. (2005) Signal transduction of erbB receptors in trastuzumab (Herceptin) sensitive and resistant cell lines: Local stimulation using magnetic microspheres as assessed by quantitative digital microscopy. Cytometry Part A, 67A(2), 161-171. DOI: 10.1002/cyto.a.20173
- November 26, 2008
- 12:00 AM
- 1,012 views
Unlearning Memories: You Have Been Erased!
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
Memories, even long term ones, can be effaced. Giving electroshock or anesthetics immediately after someone has learned a procedure rob off memory 'formation'. But some oligodeoxyneucleotides and other drugs can 'erase already etched' memories that were thought to be rather permanent.... Read more »
C. K. McIntyre. (2005) Memory-influencing intra-basolateral amygdala drug infusions modulate expression of Arc protein in the hippocampus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(30), 10718-10723. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0504436102
- January 19, 2009
- 08:05 AM
- 1,002 views
Phase Alignment of Neocortical Gamma Oscillations by Hippocampal Theta Waves
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
An empty brain is the devil’s workshop, goes the proverb. Actually, the brain is never empty. Even in our deepest slumber, the brain continues to weave waves of electrical rhythms that can be seen with the aid of electroencephalogram or EEG. When we place electrodes on the scalp or on the cortex (inside the skull), and amplify the faint signals via bioinstrumentation amplifier, we can lay our hands on these fluctuating rhythms. (More on the electronics of EEG may be found at the OpenEEG projec........ Read more »
A SIROTA, S MONTGOMERY, S FUJISAWA, Y ISOMURA, M ZUGARO, & G BUZSAKI. (2008) Entrainment of Neocortical Neurons and Gamma Oscillations by the Hippocampal Theta Rhythm. Neuron, 60(4), 683-697. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.09.014
- April 3, 2009
- 10:46 AM
- 933 views
An Anatomy of Noise And It's Implications
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
Noise is something we dislike, because by definition, noise means unwanted sound. But this definition is subjective, for what is music to my ears (say the heavy metal band Metallica) is noise to most people. In fact Iraqi prisoners were forced to listen to Metallica songs as a means of torture (culture shock and noise) by the American soldiers. Perhaps a better definition is, wrong sound at the wrong place at the wrong time.Apart from acoustic noise; there is visual noise as found in television ........ Read more »
Mori, T., & Kai, S. (2002) Noise-Induced Entrainment and Stochastic Resonance in Human Brain Waves. Physical Review Letters, 88(21). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.218101
- January 28, 2009
- 01:34 PM
- 916 views
Period Concatenation in The Brain, And The Synthesis of Beta 1 Rhythm
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
The principles of generation of EEG waves in the brain are still ill understood. Although the general mechanism of cortical dipoles and thalamocortical oscillations behind the generation holds true; there has been speculations that the alpha waves could actually be originating in the heart- the cardiac electromechanical hypothesis, which states that the arterial pulse ‘shocks’ the skull-brain mass (and interacts electrically and mechanically) to oscillate at its naturally resonant frequency ........ Read more »
Mark A. Kramer, Anita K. Roopun, Lucy M. Carracedo, Roger D. Traub, Miles A. Whittington, & Nancy J. Kopell. (2008) Rhythm Generation through Period Concatenation in Rat Somatosensory Cortex. PLoS Computational Biology, 4(9). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000169
- October 19, 2008
- 05:21 AM
- 874 views
LTP Ensures That Memories Are Forever
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
LTP or Long term potentiation is a process that may explain how memory gets stored in the brain for long term use. When you stimulate the presynaptic neuron by giving a brief (of transient duration) but rapid train of stimulus, the post synaptic neuron adjusts its ‘weight of association’ with respects to the presynaptic one, in the form of a chemical reaction. Though LTP occurs throughout the brain, it has been studied mostly in the hippocampus. If we are to understand the underlying........ Read more »
Dominique Muller, Morgan Sheng, Mathias De Roo, Paul Klauser, & Morgan Sheng. (2008) LTP Promotes a Selective Long-Term Stabilization and Clustering of Dendritic Spines . PLoS Biology. info:/
- March 20, 2009
- 01:11 AM
- 858 views
Peripheral Clocks Synch With The Master Zeitgeber
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
In our bodies there are clocks in addition to the Master clock located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus. In computers, there are multiple clocks too, and they are tightly coordinated. For example, Integrated circuits like AV 9155 generate multiple clock frequencies for different portions of a computer (e.g. bus clock, CPU clock, keyboard clock etc.). All these clock frequencies are well regulated, since ICs like AV9155 use 2 quartz crystals (14.318 MHz) which generates of all these frequencies (th........ Read more »
D. Gatfield, & U. Schibler. (2008) Circadian glucose homeostasis requires compensatory interference between brain and liver clocks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(39), 14753-14754. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0807861105
- April 5, 2009
- 04:07 PM
- 832 views
Capturing Thought, in Real Time
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
Wouldn't it be nice if we mapped how the thought processes traveled across our brain, in real time? That's exactly what Mazahir Hasan et al of Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, have enabled us to view, when an action potential (AP) is underway in the central nervous system (CNS). The researchers introduced fluorescent calcium indicator proteins (FCIP) into the brain cells of mice by means of viral gene vectors. Each time an AP was underway, a lot of ionic phenomena happene........ Read more »
Hasan, M., Friedrich, R., Euler, T., Larkum, M., Giese, G., Both, M., Duebel, J., Waters, J., Bujard, H., Griesbeck, O.... (2004) Functional Fluorescent Ca2 Indicator Proteins in Transgenic Mice under TET Control. PLoS Biology, 2(6). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0020163
- March 20, 2009
- 01:11 AM
- 824 views
Peripheral Clocks Synch With The Master Zeitgeber
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
In our bodies there are clocks in addition to the Master clock located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus. In computers, there are multiple clocks too, and they are tightly coordinated. For example,...
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]... Read more »
D. Gatfield, & U. Schibler. (2008) Circadian glucose homeostasis requires compensatory interference between brain and liver clocks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(39), 14753-14754. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0807861105
- March 20, 2009
- 12:59 AM
- 796 views
Quantum Biology: The Spooky NanoWorld of Molecules
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
We are quite adept in solving numerical problems in our everyday ‘analog world’ using decimal rules developed by us. Digital computers, on the other hand, calculate using binary or Boolean (0, 1) rules, and then convert the result in decimal format with the help of dedicated binary to decimal converter ICs. In the molecular world, calculations ‘happen’ in a strange way.Take for example the case of Fluorescent Resonant Energy Transfer or FRET. Also known as Forster Resonant Energy Transfe........ Read more »
Vasily V Ogryzko. (2008) Erwin Schroedinger, Francis Crick and epigenetic stability. Biology Direct, 3(1), 15. DOI: 10.1186/1745-6150-3-15
- December 28, 2008
- 03:19 PM
- 753 views
An Overview of Gene Therapy
by Amiya in Physiology physics woven fine
Ashanthi, a four year old girl, was suffering from an immune deficiency disorder called SCID (Severe Combined Immune Deficiency). Due to the lack of a healthy immune system, she was susceptible to...
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]... Read more »
1. Mark A. Kay*,, 2. Dexi Liu, and, & 3. Peter M. Hoogerbrugge. (1997) Gene therapy . PNAS .
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