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A Short Stay in Darkness May Heal Hearing Woes

By Guest PostFebruary 12, 2014Scienceamal isaiah, critical period, darkness, emily petrus, heal hearing woes, hey kyoung lee, light dark cycle, patrick kanold, ray charles effect, short stay, university of maryland, visual deficits

Simulated blindness gives adult mice sharper hearing, researchers find

COLLEGE PARK, Md – Call it the Ray Charles Effect: a young child who is blind develops a keen ability to hear things others cannot. Researchers have known this can happen in the brains of the very young, which are malleable enough to re-wire some circuits that process sensory information. Now researchers at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University have overturned conventional wisdom, showing the brains of adult mice can also be re-wired, compensating for a temporary vision loss by improving their hearing. (more…)

Highly logical: Microsoft and Paramount Pictures team up to promote new ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ film

By Guest PostMay 15, 2013Technologyaka scotty, australia, bad robot production, beam me up, bing, bing translator, canada, darkness, Facebook, film, imax, j j abrams, james doohan, jen buckmaster, klingon, leeanne stables, logical pairing, los angeles, Microsoft, movie adventure, msn, paramount pictures, rick rashid, san francisco, seattle, star trek, starfleet academy, toronto, trekker, Twitter, windows 8, windows phone, xbox, xbox live, xbox smartglass, xbox video awards

A new Star Trek app for Windows 8 and Windows Phone kicked off an unprecedented cross-company partnership to promote “Star Trek Into Darkness,” the new film from Paramount Pictures. Star Trek movie-themed content will materialize across Microsoft’s consumer products and services leading up the May 16 release of the highly anticipated new movie.

REDMOND, Wash. – May 15, 2013 – Star Trek and Microsoft — a logical pairing, Spock might say.

Paramount Pictures thought so. (more…)

Blind Cavefish Use Teeth to Find Their Way, New UMD Research Shows

By Guest PostSeptember 19, 2012Natureastroblepus pholeter, brain, catfish, cavefish, daphne soares, dark, darkness, denticles, dentin, ecuador, ecuadorian cave, enamel, evolutionary phenomenon, human ear, maryland, mathematical, mechanosensory part, natural sciences, navigate, neuromasts, sensory use, single cave, skin teeth, teeth, university, unknown, water, way

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — In a single cave in Ecuador, a species of cavefish has evolved to do something perhaps unique to them, navigate with their teeth.

The sensory use of these teeth, which are not in their mouths, but protrude from their skin, appears to be a previously unknown evolutionary phenomenon, one that may not exist anywhere outside this one cave, say researchers at the University of Maryland, National Institutes of Health and Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador who brought to light this fascinating new adaptation to life in dark, swiftly flowing waters. (more…)

New Tool Offers Unprecedented Access for Root Studies

By Guest PostDecember 25, 2011Scienceacidification, biofuels, brachypodium, carbon sequestration, cellular and subcellular level, charles darwin, darkness, david ehrhardt, essential mineral nutrients, foxtail millet, galactose, glucose, guido grossmann, matthias meier, mining companies, nutrient acquisition, optical sensors, plant brain, plant organs, plant physiology, plant roots, power of movement of plants, real-time, rene sit, root growth, root system, rootchip, roots, salinization, seedlings, soil, stephen quake, sugar, toxic, woei jiun guo, wolf frommer

Stanford, CA — Plant roots are fascinating plant organs – they not only anchor the plant, but are also the world’s most efficient mining companies. Roots live in darkness and direct the activities of the other organs, as well as interact with the surrounding environment. Charles Darwin posited in The Power of Movement of Plants that the root system acts as a plant’s brain.

Due to the difficulty of accessing root tissue in intact live plants, research of these hidden parts has always lagged behind research on the more visible parts of plants. But now: a new technology–developed jointly by Carnegie and Stanford University–could revolutionize root research. The findings will be published in the large-scale biology section of the December issue of The Plant Cell. (more…)

Tag Archives: darkness

A Short Stay in Darkness May Heal Hearing Woes

Highly logical: Microsoft and Paramount Pictures team up to promote new ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ film

Blind Cavefish Use Teeth to Find Their Way, New UMD Research Shows

New Tool Offers Unprecedented Access for Root Studies