brookhavenlab:

The basics of the Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment: What are we doing? Producing neutrinos and antineutrinos – nearly massless subatomic particles – and aiming them straight through 800 miles of earth and across several state lines. How do neutrinos get ‘produced’? In a really cool way. Every 1.3 seconds, an accelerator at Fermilab (outside Chicago) will smash a batch of protons into a graphite target to make short-lived pions. Then what? Strong magnetic fields guide and focus the pions to form a beam that points toward a detector site at Sanford Lab in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The detectors are located in the repurposed Homestake mine, the largest and deepest gold mine of its time. But pions aren’t neutrinos, right? Not yet, they aren’t. As the pions travel hundreds of feet in just one-hundredth of a second, they decay and produce muon neutrinos and antineutrinos. How do we detect neutrinos once they get to the mine? A detector chamber holding 10,000 tons of liquid argon awaits their arrival. Designed and built by Brookhaven engineers, this liquid argon detector uses huge refrigeration chambers to keep the argon at minus 303 degrees Fahrenheit in order to keep the sensors absolutely still. Catching the rare interactions between neutrinos and the nuclei of argon atoms takes painstaking precision and a lot of patience. Why are we doing this? According to our best understanding of the physical universe, the Standard Model, antimatter and matter should exist in equal amounts. But as you can tell by looking around you, we live in a world with much more matter than antimatter. Neutrinos might be the key to figuring out why the universe is filled with matter while antimatter all but disappeared after the Big Bang. Tell me another cool thing about this project: The Homestake mine is the site of the Nobel Prize-winning Ray Davis solar neutrino experiment. Davis was a Brookhaven researcher who successfully detected solar neutrinos - ghostlike particles from the sun streaming through our planet – and found that there were 1/3 as many neutrinos were produced as predicted. The mystery of the missing neutrinos led to the discovery that neutrinos are shape-shifters that can oscillate into different forms previously undetectable. Where can I learn more? Our friends over at Symmetry magazine ran this great story about the Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment, which is where we got that great GIF above.

The V-Beam! Why is someone not getting a superpower out of this?

Controlling brain cells using quantum dots

Our current methods of stimulating the brain are crude, either being invasive (like placing electrodes inside the head) or imprecise (like magnetic stimulation from outside the head). Recently, Lih Lin and her colleagues at the University of Washington have found a more promising method that involves quantum physics, utilising light-sensitive semi-conductive nanoparticles called quantum dots. Their potential was realised after an experiment on prostate cancer cells, where quantum dots were positioned next to cell membranes and then exposed to light. The energy excited the quantum dots’ electrons and the area then became negatively charged, which caused the cancer cells’ ion channels to open, allowing ions to rush in or out. Since this is essentially how brain cells communicate, the researchers repeated the experiment on nerve cells and found that individual cells can be controlled at a level of precision beyond that of alternative brain-stimulation techniques. Quantum dots can be delivered to the brain cells relatively easily through an injection, but the real problem is how to then expose them to light. For this reason, it’s likely that their first uses will be in the human eye, since the retina naturally absorbs light—and if they can reactivate damaged cells, they could potentially treat blindness. Because many brain disorders are caused by imbalanced neural activity, quantum dots could eventually be used to treats conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and epilepsy—thankfully without cracking open your skull.

(Image Credit: 1, 2)

blueinkalchemy:

wolfshowl:

bloodandcrust:

boxcarxo:

rararamyeon:

queernonymoose:

jraghonfly:

mofobian:

ortegita:

cuxita:

“SuperGatito salvado por veterinarios

Este gatito nació con la caja torácica deformada, lo que afectó directamente a la posición de su corazón y desencadenó una serie de problemas respiratorios. Ante tal situación, los veterinarios le pusieron una férula en el pecho y se lo vendaron, fue entonces cuando se dieron cuenta que el vendaje se asemejaba al traje de un superhéroe, de ahí viene el nombre de Supergatito.”

cuando sea veterinario tambien voy a salvar gatitos 

Translation:

“This kitten was born with deformed rib cage, which directly affected the position of your heart and triggered a series of breathing problems. In this situation, veterinarians put a splint on his chest and blindfolded him, it was then realized that the dressing resembled a superhero costume, hence the name Supergatito.”

:”3

Omg its a Tony Stark Cat.

I am not crying. It’s just raining on my face…in my house.

i’m screaming

omg sweet prince

I am so glad these pics are people helping. When I first saw it, I thought the poor kitteh had been experimented on.

And yes. Totally Tony Stark cat!

I AM IRON CAT.