In large offices, mailroom workers read the labels on incoming letters and packages to sort and deliver them and dispose of junk mail. In cells, these tasks—as well as importing food and other materials—fall to small cellular sacs called endosomes. Acting as mailroom staff, endosomes sort and deliver nutrients and building blocks, like amino acids, fat and sugars, to their proper destinations, and send cellular junk, like damaged proteins, to trash processors, such as vacuoles or lysosomes. Continue reading “The Cell’s Mailroom”
Month: July 2016
A World Without Pain
You glide across an icy canyon where you meet smiling snowmen, waddling penguins and a glistening river that winds forever. You toss snowballs, hear them smash against igloos, then watch them explode in vibrant colors.
Back in the real world, a dentist digs around your mouth to remove an impacted tooth, a procedure that really, really hurts. Could experiencing a “virtual” world distract you from the pain? NIGMS grantees David Patterson and Hunter Hoffman show it can.
Patterson, a psychologist at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, and Hoffman, a UW cognitive psychologist, helped create the virtual reality program “Snow World” in an effort to reduce excessive pain experienced by burn patients. However, the researchers expect Snow World to help alleviate all kinds of pain, including pain experienced during dental procedures. Continue reading “A World Without Pain”
Cool Images: An Independence Day-Inspired Collection
@media screen and (max-width: 480px) {
.halloween-out {
width: 96.5%;
}
.halloween-out .halloween-in img {
padding-top: 42px;
padding-right: 12px;
}
}
@media screen and (max-width: 320px) {
.halloween-out {
width: 96%;
}
}
In case you missed the fireworks this weekend, we’ve put together a collection of firework-like images from basic research studies.