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12 (Every) Plague That Wiped Out Humanity in Sci-Fi Movies — Explored

Humans think they can conquer everything in this world, like they have a solution for every problem, but this is where people get greedy, overambitious and most importantly, desperate. For example, in most of the science fiction and survival thrillers, people dig their own grave by creating deadly viruses in the labs, sometimes for political reasons and sometimes to create a medical miracle. These movies show how these man-made viruses wipe out humanity and make the world a living hell for a few immune survivors. Now, this has been a widely explored trope in every survival thriller, but deep beneath this layer, these films talk about something really ominous about our future.

#SciFi #ScienceFiction #SciFiMovies #SpeculativeFiction #scifiart

AI finally tests a century old theory about how cancer begins

Cancer often begins when the genetic instructions that guide our cells become scrambled, allowing cells to grow uncontrollably. Now, scientists at EMBL have developed an AI-powered system called MAGIC that can automatically spot and tag cells showing early signs of chromosomal trouble—tiny DNA-filled structures known as micronuclei that are linked to future cancer development.

Pathway-Specific Ultrastructure of Thalamocortical Synapses in Mouse Somatosensory Area S2

JNeurosci: Martin-Correa et al. combined high-end volumetric electron microscopy and axon labeling methods to measure the synapses established in adult mouse somatosensory area 2 by specific thalamic cell populations.

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The synaptic circuits established by thalamocortical axons from the ventral posteromedial (VPM) and posterior (Po) nuclei in the first somatosensory cortex have been mapped in high detail as they are a prime model in functional and modeling studies of the interactions between the thalamus and cerebral cortex. In addition, VPM and Po neurons innervate the second somatosensory area (S2), but the synaptic organization of their axons in this area remained essentially unknown. On adult male mice, we combined axon labeling with serial section transmission electron microscopy and focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy to measure and compare functionally relevant structural parameters of synaptic boutons (SBs), e.g., bouton and mitochondrial volume, vesicle pool size, as well as postsynaptic density (PSD) distribution and size.

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