News tagged with nervous system

Carbon dioxide affecting fish brains: study

Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous systems of sea fish, with serious consequences for their survival, according to new research.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jan 16, 2012 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (15) | comments 15

Scientists cultivate human brain's most ubiquitous cell in lab dish

Pity the lowly astrocyte, the most common cell in the human nervous system.

Biology / Biotechnology

created May 22, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (10) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Sea smarts: Scientists studying mollusks discover there is more than one way to make a brain

(PhysOrg.com) -- Seemingly simple animals such as the snail and squid have ransacked the genetic toolkit over the last half billion years to find different ways to build complex brains, nervous systems and shells, according ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Sep 15, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (9) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Web weaving skills provide clues to aging

Young house spiders weave webs with perfect angles and regular patterns, but as they reach old age their webs deteriorate, showing gaping holes and erratic weaving.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jul 02, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Zombie ants have fungus on the brain

Tropical carpenter ants (Camponotus leonardi) live high up in the rainforest canopy. When infected by a parasitic fungus (Ophiocordyceps unilateralis) the behaviour of the ants is dramatically changed. They ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 09, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Scientists uncover new role for gene in maintaining steady weight

Against the backdrop of the growing epidemic of obesity in the United States, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have made an important new discovery regarding a specific gene that plays ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Nov 23, 2011 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (6) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Study suggests another avenue for detecting Alzheimer's disease

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have determined that a well-known chemical process called acetylation has a previously unrecognized association with one of the biological processes ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Apr 01, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Sodium channels evolved before animals' nervous systems, research shows

An essential component of animal nervous systems—sodium channels—evolved prior to the evolution of those systems, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have discovered.

Biology / Evolution

created May 17, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Researchers probe nervous system repair

(PhysOrg.com) -- In humans, regeneration of the peripheral nervous system after injury remains a hit-or-miss affair, while brain and spinal cord damage usually results in lifelong disabilities.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Mar 30, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Glucosamine-like supplement suppresses multiple sclerosis attacks

A glucosamine-like dietary supplement suppresses the damaging autoimmune response seen in multiple sclerosis, according to a UC Irvine study.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Sep 30, 2011 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (6) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

New system may one day steer microrobots through blood vessels for disease treatment

Researchers use a magnetic field to generate both side-to-side and corkscrew-like motions of tiny robots.

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 16, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 3

Spinal cord processes information just like areas of the brain

Patrick Stroman's work mapping the function and information processing of the spinal cord could improve treatment for spinal cord injuries.

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Mar 22, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Brain cell regrowth linked to benefits of exercise, sexual behaviors and reproductive issues

Two studies published by an interdisciplinary team of Hong Kong researchers in the current special issue of Cell Transplantation (20:1), now freely available on-line, link the regrowth of key adult brain cells (neurogenesis) in two ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Mar 10, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Scientists build Parkinson's disease in a dish to study cells' death

Until now, there have been no witnesses to the death of brain cells in people with Parkinson's disease. And like any murder mystery, this has slowed the search for the killer.

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Apr 05, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Student unlocks secrets of mercury

More than one billion people around the world depend upon fish for protein in their diet. But the threat of mercury poisoning, especially in children, has raised concerns about the safety of eating fish.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Oct 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1

Nervous system

The nervous system is a network of specialized cells that communicate information about an organism's surroundings and itself. It processes this information and causes reactions in other parts of the body. It is composed of neurons and other specialized cells called glial cells,(plural form glia), that aid in the function of the neurons. The nervous system is divided broadly into two categories: the peripheral nervous system and the central nervous system. Neurons generate and conduct impulses between and within the two systems. The peripheral nervous system is composed of sensory neurons and the neurons that connect them to the nerve cord, spinal cord and brain, which make up the central nervous system. In response to stimuli, sensory neurons generate and propagate signals to the central nervous system which then processes and conducts signals back to the muscles and glands. The neurons of the nervous systems of animals are interconnected in complex arrangements and use electrochemical signals and neurotransmitters to transmit impulses from one neuron to the next. The interaction of the different neurons form neural circuits regulate an organism's perception of the world and what is going on with its body, thus regulating its behavior. Nervous systems are found in many multicellular animals but differ greatly in complexity between species.

For more information about Nervous system, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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