Scientists create atlas of human brain!

A comprehensive atlas of the adult human brain that reveals the activity of genes across the entire organ has been created by scientists.

The map was created from genetic analyses of about 900 specific parts of two "clinically unremarkable" brains donated by a 24-year-old and 39-year-old man, and half a brain from a third man.

Researchers at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle said the atlas will serve as a baseline against which they and others can compare the genetic activity of diseased brains, and so shed light on factors that underlie neurological and psychiatric conditions.

"The human brain is the most complex structure known to mankind and one of the greatest challenges in modern biology is to understand how it is built and organised," said Seth Grant, a professor of molecular neuroscience at Edinburgh University who worked on the map.

"This allows us for the first time to overlay the human genome on to the human brain. It gives us essentially the Rosetta stone for understanding the link between the genome and the brain, and gives us a path forward to decoding how genetic disorders impact and produce brain disease," he said.

The power of the brain arises from its neural wiring, its variety of cells and structures, and ultimately where and when different genes are switched on and off throughout the 3lb lump of flesh.

From more than 100 million measurements on brain pieces, with some only a few cubic millimetres, the scientists found that 84% of all genes are turned on in some part of the organ. Gene activity in next door regions of the cortex, the large wrinkly surface of the brain, was very similar, but distinct from that in lower parts, such as the brain stem.

More detailed analysis of the cortex revealed patterns in gene activity that corresponded to regions with specific roles in the brain, such as movement and sensory functions.

The atlas revealed no major divide in gene activity on the left and right sides of the brain, suggesting that expertise generally handled by one hemisphere, such as language, comes from more subtle differences than the study could spot.

Though both brains came from men of a similar age and ethnicity, the pattern of gene activity was so similar that researchers suspect there may be a common blueprint for the expression of genes in the human brain. Work is now under way on donated tissues from both sexes to check how consistent that genetic blueprint might be among people with healthy brains.

Scientists have constructed similar genetic atlases for rodents in the past, but the shortage of donated human brains, coupled with the destructive nature of the tests, and the 1,000-fold increase in size, meant a human equivalent was more of a challenge.

Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists describe how they first scanned the donated brains and then chopped them into tiny pieces. For each lump, they measured activity levels for all of the 20,000 or so genes in the human genome.

The atlas, which overlays the genetic results on to a 3D image of the brain, is freely available for researchers to use online.

Grant said that future studies will look to connect the genetic brain atlas with other genetic studies or brain scans of abnormal or diseased brains. That could highlight genes that play a role in brain conditions and point the way to drug treatments that dampen down or ramp up gene activity.

Clyde Francks at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands is already using genetic data from the Allen Institute for Brain Science to pinpoint genes that give rise to brain asymmetries in a set of 1,300 Dutch students.

Here is the scientific proof for existence of unicon!!!!!

Worldwide Love Affair

Unicorns are not found in Greek mythology, but rather in accounts of natural history, for Greek writers of natural history were convinced of the reality of the unicorn, which they located in India, a distant and fabulous realm for them. The earliest description is from Ctesias who described them as wild asses, fleet of foot, having a horn a cubit and a half in length and colored white, red and black.Aristotle must be following Ctesias when he mentions two one-horned animals, the oryx (a kind of antelope) and the so-called "Indian ass".Strabo says that in the Caucasus there were one-horned horses with stag-like heads.

Catchy veggie names can make kids eat greens!

Kids seem to have an aversion to eating vegetables, but you can make your child have more greens by using attractive names for healthy foods, according to a new study. Researchers from the Cornell University conducted a couple of studies to explore whether a simple change such as using attractive names would influence kid's consumption of vegetables.

In the first study, plain old carrots were transformed into 'X-ray Vision Carrots' . Over 147 students ranging from 8-11 years old from 5 schools participated in tasting the 'cool new' vegetables. Lunchroom menus were the same except that carrots were added on three consecutive days. On the first and last days, carrots remained unnamed. On the second day, the carrots were served as either 'X-ray Vision Carrots' or 'Food of the Day' . The study found that by changing the carrots to 'X-ray vision carrots' , a whopping 66% were eaten, far greater than the 32% eaten when labelled 'Food of the Day' and 35% eaten when unnamed. In the second study, carrots remained 'X-Ray vision carrots' , broccoli became 'Power Punch Broccoli' and 'Silly Dilly Green Beans' replaced regular old green beans.

Researchers looked at food sales over two months in two neighbouring NYC schools. For the first month, both schools offered unnamed food items, while on the second month carrots, broccoli and green beans were given the more attractive names, only in one of the schools (the treatment school).Of the 1,552 students involved 47.8% attended the treatment school. The results were outstanding: vegetable purchases went up by 99%.

Samsung Galaxy Stellar (Verizon Wireless)!

Samsung may have cornered the high-end smartphone market with the Galaxy S III$249.99 at Amazon Wireless, but not everyone is looking for a big, expensive new device. Many people are still picking up a smartphone to use for the first time. And even plenty of experienced users aren't willing to shell out $200 or more for a new phone every two years. That brings us to the Samsung Galaxy Stellar. It's a perfectly capable smartphone that's free with a two-year contract, and it has a simplified starter mode for first-time smartphone users. Overall it's a stellar deal, but the phone's camera isn't quite out of this world.

here's an empty, side-mounted microSD card slot on the left edge of the phone. My 32 and 64GB SanDisk cards worked fine in it. You also get 1.72GB of free internal storage.

All of our music test files played back except for FLAC, and sound quality was fine over both wired 3.5mm headphones as well as Altec Lansing BackBeat Bluetooth headphones. All test videos played back too, at resolutions up to 1080p, except audio clipped in and out on DivX files.

The 3.2-megapixel camera is the Stellar's low point. Shutter speeds are slow, at 1.1 seconds, and autofocus doesn't lock in until after you press the button to take a picture. The camera actually captures some decent detail, but colors are a bit washed out. More than that, however, there's only so much you can do with a 3-megapixel sensor, and these photos just can't compete against those taken by most other smartphones. Unfortunately, video capture is worse. The Stellar records video at a steady 30 frames per second both indoors and out, but maxes out at a small, lackluster 640-by-480 resolution. There's also a standard 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat.

If you can deal with the disappointing camera, the Samsung Galaxy Stellar is actually a great choice for Verizon users on a budget. It's a lot more powerful than either the keyboarded LG Enlighten$0.01 at Amazon Wireless or the Pantech Breakout$0.01 at Amazon Wireless, two of Verizon's other low-cost options. The Pantech Marauder is actually a good match spec-wise, and it's a better choice if you want a phone with a physical keyboard. But the Stellar has a sleeker form factor and better battery life, making it the better choice overall. If you're willing to spend some more money, the Motorola Droid Razr M gets you a larger, sharper display and a faster processor for just $100.

Farewell to an American pioneer: Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, given hero's burial at sea as his remains committed to ocean by his widow!

First man on the moon buried at sea today by his widow Carol Given full ceremonial burial by U.S. Navy off the coast of Florida

Emotional memorial service held yesterday at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
Made history with 1969 Apollo 11 moon landingNeil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon, was buried at sea today with a full military service.

The ashes of the ‘reluctant’ icon of the 1960s Space Race were transported on the guided missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea and were committed to the Atlantic Ocean.

Yesterday, Armstrong was praised in a memorial service at the National Cathedral as a humble hero who led mankind into space.

As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969.The legendary astronaut was born on August 5, 1930, near Wapakoneta, Ohio.

He went on to work in the military, fighting in the Korean War. Later, he would pilot planes for NASA, and eventually, spacecrafts.

During the historic mission on July 20, 1969, nearly half a billion people tuned in to watch the black and white mission to the moon, where Armstrong, joined by Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, spent some two hours loping around on the eerie grey surface.

He radioed back to Earth the historic news of 'one giant leap for mankind.' 'The sights were simply magnificent, beyond any visual experience that I had ever been exposed to,' Armstrong once said.

The moonwalk marked America's victory in the Cold War space race that began October 4, 1957, with the launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1, a 184-pound satellite that sent shock waves around the world.

Although he had been a Navy fighter pilot, a test pilot for NASA's forerunner and an astronaut, Armstrong never allowed himself to be caught up in the celebrity and glamor of the space program.

'I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer,' he said in February 2000 in one of his rare public appearances. 'And I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession.'

However, his Apollo 11 moon mission turned out to be Armstrong's last space flight. The following year he was appointed to a desk job, being named NASA's deputy associate administrator for aeronautics in the office of advanced research and technology.

Armstrong, who died last month in Ohio at age 82, walked on the moon in July 1969. 'He's now slipped the bonds of Earth once again, but what a legacy he left,' former Treasury Secretary John Snow told the gathering.

Apollo 11 crewmates Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins and Mercury astronaut John Glenn and about two dozen members of Congress were among the estimated 1,500 people in the cavernous cathedral.

A moon rock that the Apollo 11 astronauts gave the church in 1974 is embedded in one of its stained glass windows.NASA administrator Charles Bolden, a former astronaut, said Armstrong's humility and courage 'lifted him above the stars'.

Bolden read a letter from President Barack Obama saying, 'the imprint he left on the surface of the moon is matched only by the extraordinary mark he left on ordinary Americans'.

Royals unfazed by topless islanders!

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have come face to face with a group of topless South Pacific women and did not bat an eyelid when introduced.

Wearing just a few banana leaves as a makeshift top the group performed a dance with men from their region as they showcased their culture for the royals.

Their exposed breasts are a normal part of life in the Solomon Islands' province of Choiseul, where the women are from, and they happily chatted to William and Kate who seemed completely at ease in their company.

One man among their group had a greeting written in pidgin English painted on his chest for the royals - Welkam Wills and Kate.

The royal couple met the performers when they toured a cultural village exhibition in Honiara, capital of the Solomon Islands, showcasing the unique arts, music and culture found in the nation's nine provinces.

William and Kate were animated and looked relaxed throughout their visit and appeared to have moved on from the furore surrounding the publication of topless pictures of the Duchess, taken while on a private holiday in France last week with William.

A civil action has already been launched by the royals against the French magazine Closer which printed the images and later today the Duke and Duchess will ask France's criminal prosecutors to consider charging the photographer who took the intimate pictures.

The couple's lawyers will make a formal criminal complaint to the prosecutor over an invasion of their privacy, St James's Palace said.

Once the complaint is made, it is up to the prosecutor to investigate and possibly lay charges over the notorious images published last week.

Apple iPhone 5: Announced!

Apple announced its 6th generation iPhone, the iPhone 5, at a special event in San Francisco this morning. The iPhone 5 brings a huge list of improvements. Apple unexpectedly used the iPhone 5 to introduce its next-generation SoC: the A6.

Apple didn't say anything about core counts and clock speeds, but it did give us a good indication of performance: 2x faster CPU and GPU. Based on the performance gains, Apple's history of SoC naming and some other stuff we've heard recently, it looks like Apple has integrated two ARM Cortex A15 cores on Samsung's 32nm LP HK+MG process. This is a huge deal because it means Apple beat both TI and Samsung on bringing A15s to market.

 

The GPU side isn't entirely clear at this point, but the 2x gains could be had through a move to 4 PowerVR SGX543 cores up from 2 in the iPhone 4S.

The new SoC is paired with Qualcomm's single-chip 28nm MDM9615 LTE baseband. Apple claims support for EDGE, EV-DO, HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSDPA and LTE. The WiFi gets updated to dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz 802.11a/b/g/n, using 20MHz channels Apple can hit a peak link rate of 150Mbps over WiFi.

The display sees a big upgrade from 3.5-inches to 4-inches diagonally. The new resolution is 1136 x 640, same width but with a taller height (16:9 ratio). Legacy applications will be letterboxed until they are updated to support the added real estate. Within iOS the biggest change will be a fifth row of icons on the home screen; along with added content within apps like the calendar and Mail. 

The iPhone 5 includes three mics, including support for beam forming. The ear piece also now features a noise cancelling feature. As expected there's a new dock connector: the 8-pin Lightning connector. The Lightning connector is reversible and significantly smaller than the previous 30-pin dock connector introduced in 2003. 

Pricing hews to tradition, with configurations starting at 16GB and $199 and adding $100 to the price at each step up in storage (32GB and 64GB). The rest of the lineup shuffles its way down, with the iPhone 3GS being led of stage, and putting the iPhone 4S at $99 and the iPhone 4 gratis, all on contract of course. Preorders start September 14th and will be available in stores September 21st.