# Connection Between Social and Physical Pain



## Kilgore Trout (Jun 25, 2010)

Pain and heartache are bound together in our brains

*Like a jab in the arm with a red-hot poker, social rejection hurts. Literally. A new study finds that our brains make little distinction between the sting of being rebuffed by peers - or by a lover, boss or family member - and the physical pain that arises from disease or injury. The new findings are published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.*


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## Kilgore Trout (Jun 25, 2010)

*Research shows adult brains capable of rapid new growth
*

*(PhysOrg.com) -- In a paper published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, Veronica Kwok, Li-Hai Tan, and their colleagues at the University of Hong Kong, conclude that the adult human brain is capable of new rapid growth when exposed to stimuli similar to what babies experience as they are learning from their environment.
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Research shows adult brains capable of rapid new growth


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## Bote (Jun 16, 2010)

Kilgore Trout said:


> *Research shows adult brains capable of rapid new growth
> *
> 
> *(PhysOrg.com) -- In a paper published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, Veronica Kwok, Li-Hai Tan, and their colleagues at the University of Hong Kong, conclude that the adult human brain is capable of new rapid growth when exposed to stimuli similar to what babies experience as they are learning from their environment.
> ...


That's pretty interesting. I've browsed through my old biology textbooks (one from 1999 and other from 2003. High school and elementary school ones) and they both say that from the age of 20 it's a downward spiral for the neurons - they progressively die out as you get older. I'm quite surprised that one can create an environment which will stimulate the formation of new connections so fast. Maybe rewiring the brain every few years would make the neurons themselves stronger and slow down the fall in mental capacity that comes with age. Brain plasticity - awesomeness.


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## Kilgore Trout (Jun 25, 2010)

Bote said:


> That's pretty interesting. I've browsed through my old biology textbooks (one from 1999 and other from 2003. High school and elementary school ones) and they both say that from the age of 20 it's a downward spiral for the neurons - they progressively die out as you get older. I'm quite surprised that one can create an environment which will stimulate the formation of new connections so fast. Maybe rewiring the brain every few years would make the neurons themselves stronger and slow down the fall in mental capacity that comes with age. Brain plasticity - awesomeness.


Many think that the brain grows worse as we age, and this proves true to a degree, but as humans, our small three pound tofu-like organs have an amazing neural plasticity. Each of our brains contains 1.1 trillion cells and 100 – 150 billion neurons. Each neuron has five thousand synaptic connections, which receive bursts of chemical signals, called neurotransmitters, from other neurons at about 5-50 times per second. 

All possible combinations of 100 billion neurons firing off equals 10 to the millionth power. We have the life-long ability to gain new skills and knowledge, develop new synaptic connections, and prevent some diseases of the nervous system. 

(Note: I’m not suggesting that age doesn’t affect our brains but rather we should strive to develop our neural plasticity)


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## Kilgore Trout (Jun 25, 2010)

*Science Friday audio interview with Cormac McCarthy, Werner Herzog and Lawrence Krauss*

Science Friday Archives: Connecting Science and Art


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## Kilgore Trout (Jun 25, 2010)

Scientists settle centuries-old debate on perception

Scientists settle centuries-old debate on perception

*Researchers said Sunday they had solved a conundrum about human perception that has stumped philosophers and scientists alike since it was first articulated 323 years ago by an Irish politician in a letter to John Locke.*


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## Skum (Jun 27, 2010)

Awesome links, Kilgore. Stuff like this makes me all the more anxious to get over with my general science courses and jump into the neuroscience classes.


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## Kilgore Trout (Jun 25, 2010)

*New study on multitasking reveals switching glitch in aging brain*

New study on multitasking reveals switching glitch in aging brain

*Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco have pinpointed a reason older adults have a harder time multitasking than younger adults: they have more difficulty switching between tasks at the level of brain networks.*


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## Kilgore Trout (Jun 25, 2010)

Scientists make teleportation breakthrough - Yahoo! News UK










*Boffins from Japan and Australia have made a huge scientific breakthrough by successfully teleporting packets of light from one area to another.*


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## Kilgore Trout (Jun 25, 2010)

Planets around white dwarfs?

*Astronomers are finding tantalising hints of planets around dead stars, it was revealed today at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, Wales.*


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## Bote (Jun 16, 2010)

Kilgore Trout said:


> Scientists make teleportation breakthrough - Yahoo! News UK
> 
> 
> 
> ...


:O Awesome. One question though: How did they manage to destroy a "light packet"?


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## Kilgore Trout (Jun 25, 2010)

*(PhysOrg.com) -- Did the early universe have just one spatial dimension? That's the mind-boggling concept at the heart of a theory that University at Buffalo physicist Dejan Stojkovic and colleagues proposed in 2010.
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Primordial weirdness: Did the early universe have 1 dimension?

*It looks like magic. A bike traveling at the right speed will steer itself--popping back up when it starts to fall. But why? A new paper by Andy Ruina, of Cornell University, Jim Papadopoulos, of University of Wisconsin - Stout, and colleagues challenges the conventional wisdom of what's required for bike stability.*

Scifri Videos: Physics Of The Riderless Bike

*The Japanese managed to create an artificial uterus from acrylic, and the Americans into practice the idea of creating an artificial uterus from human cells. Implementation of this project to people is expected over the next five years.*










Artificial uterus ~ The Science News


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## Kilgore Trout (Jun 25, 2010)

Animals have personalities, too, bird study suggests

*ScienceDaily (Apr. 28, 2011) An individual's personality can have a big effect on their life. Some people are outgoing and gregarious while others find novel situations stressful which can be detrimental to their health and wellbeing. Increasingly, scientists are discovering that animals are no different.*


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## Kilgore Trout (Jun 25, 2010)

*Chip satellites -- designed to blow in the solar wind -- depart on Endeavour's final launch
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Cornell Chronicle: CU satellites depart on Endeavour's last run

*Move over, Newton: Scientifically ignorant computer derives natural laws from raw data
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_Professor Hod Lipson and graduate student Michael Schmidt adjust a double pendulum. Refectors on the pendulum enable motion-tracking software to record position and velocity as the pendulum swings. From this a new computer algorithm can derive equations of motion.
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Cornell Chronicle: Computer derives natural laws


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