Microbiology, Genetics, and Ecology happened to coincide in giving me the largest workload I have seen expected within a few days in my entire college career and I NEARLY forgot to do this blog. Coincidentally, because of the largest chunk of said work is Micro, I thought to combine it with the main theme of what the highlight of my Thanksgiving ( Read more... )

"To reduce the severity of his seizures, Joe had the bridge between his left and right cerebral hemisphers (the corpus callosum) severed. As a result, his left and right brains no longer communicate through that pathway. Here's what happens as a result:"

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The rest of Dr. Najeeb's Intro to Immunology lecture can be found here. I particularly enjoy that he draws during the lecture to get the subject across rather that just showing a diagram. It allows for a progression of the material that is much easier to follow.

Who doesn't love Dopamine?

Dopamine is the neurotransmitter essential to motivation, learning, and the brain's reward circuitry - in other words, enjoyable activities will cause a rush of dopamine into brain areas already primed for reward/pleasure.


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(Not so) Suprisingly, DNA on its own will not completely determine an individual. While this is sometimes used as a cheap "evil twin" plot device, it holds true because of a molecular body known as the epigenome. It governs expressivity of the underlying coding and is itself affected by environmental factors such as stress, drug exposure, and diet ( Read more... )