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Human Behavior

The 100 Series Finale Completely Misses the Point of the Show – tor.com

After seven years (give or take a century) of deciding whether or not to pull the lever on various threats for the sake of protecting those they loved, humanity as represented by The 100 finally faced its own test. Yet for all that the series finale purported to grapple with the shows themes, its outcome didnt actually satisfy the moral arguments posed by Clarke Griffin and her fellow juvenile-delinquents-turned-survivors. Nor did it even fulfill season 7s messy storytelling, opting instead for bringing back some fan favorite characters within the context of humanitys Last Test in a way that rang hollow.

Ultimately,The 1oos series finale felt like another television casualty, a series that lost sight of its original, dynamic premise and scrambled to throw together something adequate. It wasnt quite Game of Thrones-level fumbling, but the final product is just as narratively sloppy.

Spoilers forThe 100 716 The Last War

To be fair, season 7 should never have happened the way it did. Bringing back Bill Cadogan and retroactively introducing the Disciples was simply too much new worldbuilding when our heroes had barely finished reckoning with Sanctum and its god-like Primes. At least Russell Lightbourne and his technologically-immortal kin were an extension of established mythology around the Flame (storing the minds of past Grounder commanders) and engaged each of the core characters in ways that augmented their characters arcs. The 100 breaking its own rules about death last season was a fantastic example of how a long-running series could still look within itself and find something fresh to say.

Instead, all of the mishigas about the Last War reads like someone skimmed the CliffsNotes for this series and decided, Hey yeah, lets make it all aboutthem being the ones who are judged worthy of survival for once! By omnipotent, ascended, alien beings, no lessdespite the series never once engaging with the presence of extraterrestrials. While the characters fit naturally into season 6s plot, almost all of the arcs this season felt shoehorned in: the time dilation skewing everyones relative senses of time, Bellamy going full sheep and Clarke killing him to save Madi, last weeks ableist outcome in which Clarke almost killed a locked-in Madi without her consent. The only character who really benefited from this seasons wacky wormholes and time loops was Octavia (more on that later).

The reveal that Cadogan and his ilk had mistranslated Last War from Last Test wasnt even much of a twist, because (a) of course its a test, after years of Clarke and co. deciding who deserved to die so they could find a new home and (b) the violent, self-preserving tendencies that these humans have always demonstrated left very little doubt that there would be some sort of fight as part of the test.

That Clarke opens the episode by remorselessly gunning down nameless Disciples is a mockery of the consideration and anguish with which she has approached past genocides. That she murders Cadogan before he can answer the first question of the test should make it clear to the celestial judges how the exam is going to go. While Bill Cadogan has absolutely no business speaking on behalf of the human race, Clarke Griffin isnt a much better pick.

Photo: Diyah Pera/The CW

The problem with the Last Test, and with transcendence, is that the rules are never made clear until were in the moment. We know nothing about these ascended beings other than that they have the power to invite other civilizations to become infinite with them, or to annihilate them by way of reforming them into crystal statues as a testament to their failure. The beings seem to be so far beyond any human emotion or experienceyet they are supposed to possess the nuance to judge human behaviorso their solution is to appear as a crucial figure to the test-taker.

Thus, it is a brief joy to see the return of Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey), even though it is immediately apparent that this is Lexa in form only. On the one hand, going by the judges explanation, it reinforces that Lexa was both Clarkes greatest teacher and her greatest love. Yet that means very little if its just a comforting mask mouthing familiar Trigedasleng mantras without the personality or perspective to accompany her counsel.

In the early seasons, Clarke represented the best and worst of humanity: She was the one willing to make impossible decisions, to pull the literal lever that places humanity permanently on the other side of a devastating choice. More than once she sentenced herself to death or exile or isolation so that she could bear that pain while others could prosper. But this final season has warped her character into a shrill, single-minded maternal figure who is so short-sighted she cant consider anything beyond her adoptive teenage daughters safety, treating Madi like a helpless infant instead of someone the same age that she, as a juvenile delinquent, was sent to Earth to fend for herself.

The Last Test sees Clarke self-righteously describing her pain to an elevated creature who might be able to feel it but cannot actually fathom it; who responds by saying that Clarke has just passed on more suffering to others, that she is unable to follow a slogan other than the Grounders jus drein jus daun, or blood must have blood.

So of course, when judged through Clarke-as-proxy, humanity is found wanting. But she was never meant to represent humanity as a whole; she embodies its worst impulses and gravest decisions. Yet by the judges rules, humanity is deemed undeserving of transcendence.

The thing is, our heroes had no interest in transcending their existence before they came across the Disciples. Even though their every encounter with another civilization ended in competition and bloodshed, they never gave up on the hope that the next time they would be able to co-exist with another set of humans. Remember that Clarke chose to destroy the City of Light and its weird digital afterlife, knowing that Praimfaya was on its way, because that sterile approximation of existence was not the way humanity was meant to continue on.

So for them to suddenly be faced with this ultimatumtranscend or become extinctputs them in an impossible position. Thank goodness, then, for Raven Reyes, who never met an impossibility she couldnt take apart.

Photo: Shane Harvey/The CW

In this case, its treating the Last Test as a relay race. Raven demands the chance to retake it, prompting the judgeas Abby!to teleport them to Bardo in real time to see that the Last War is indeed happening, between the surviving Grounders and the indoctrinated Disciples. Both sides entire cultures are built around fighting as the immediate and reflexive choice; whether theyre shouting jus drein, jus daun or for all mankind, its the same self-preserving violence. So even if the judge were willing to consider the whole of humanity (which at this point is a couple hundred people, tops), theyre modeling the same behavior as Clarke.

The only thing they can do, then, is decide that their fight is overnot because they die, but because they stop fighting.

Raven, as some weird ghostly observer, cant interfere with the action. So its especially heartening to see Octavia and Indra come to the realization on their own that this isnt the Last War in the sense of a final, winner-take-all fight, but the Last War meaning that they have to break the cycle of violence. Indra finally gets rid of Sheidheda (several episodes too late!), while Octavia gives everyone a pep talk about being Wonkru. (Hmm, maybe they should have tried for that at the start??)

This is what good character growth looks like: Octavia Blake, the girl in the floor, Blodreina, had to put all of her anger aside, had to grapple with her bloodthirst, in order to break her own ingrained cycle of killing-as-control. Yet even her big speech has shades of Tyrion Lannisters whats most important is a good story spiel in the Game of Thrones series finale; it all feels too on-the-nose.

We can change, Raven tells the Abby-judge, we just need more time. Apparently those few minutes are all thats required, because the judges reverse their decision and allow humanity to transcend: some combination of the Doctors golden regeneration and The Good Places final visual, with all of the humans inexplicably joyful at this mass exodus from their corporeal forms.

All except Clarke, who once again is cast as the martyr and pariah, intended to live out the rest of her mortal existence alone. To be honest, the Lexa-judge makes a good point that Clarke was the only test subject to commit murderduring the test, so it makes sense that there would be a consequenceyet its not as if the Last Test had any clear rules.

Photo: Diyah Pera/The CW

And then the final scene undoes everything in this episode and in the series as a whole, all due to another twist of new information not previously available: Transcendence is achoice, and all of Clarkes friends have chosen to reject it in favor of joining her back on Earth.

That means Murphy, Emori, Niylah, Jackson, Miller, Octavia, Levitt, Hope, and Jordan all chose mortality over some City of Light-esque infinite existence, just so Clarke wouldnt spend the rest of her days talking into a radio with no one to listen on the other end. (No Madi, because she knew Clarke wouldnt want a future with no peers or love interests for her, and thats fair, give the poor girl a break already.) Frankly, this makes sense; as I said above, these characters never even wanted transcendence; they just didnt want to be annihilated. So they came back to try again

Its all very heartwarming, yet the whole time I felt more emotionally manipulated than anything else. It also raisesso many questions:

Is Earth just fine? Was Monty completely wrong about Earth recovering from theEligius IV nuke, and they could have just stayed in cryosleep a bit longer? If the Disciples knew that Earth was fine, why not just send our heroes through it at the start and let them live out the rest of their brief lives in ignorance, rather than risk them messing up the Disciples plan? Yes, that would have led to humanity going extinct, but thats a hell of a convoluted way of getting back to Earth.

But the most disturbing fallout of this narrative choice is thatThe 100, a series about humanitys constant struggles to co-exist, ends on the message that everything is fine when theres no one you have to put aside differences with. Paradise for Clarke and co. is being with each other and not having to worry about invading anyones land, or assimilating with anyone elses culture, or being tempted to wipe out any supposed enemies for their own survival. Its one thing for them to have realized its possible not to fight when faced with an opposing army, but to reward them with a lifetime in which they will never have to fight with another conflicting force doesnt feel like they actually learned anything valuable.

Thematically, the final visual of them setting up shelter on the shore does swing back around to the Arks prayer of may we meet again: In peace, may you leave the shore. In love, may you find the next. Safe passage on your travels until our final journey to the ground. May we meet again.They always spoke it over their dying, which is ironic considering that transcendence did not allow for the dead to join. Instead, the mantra describes Clarke and her friends.

So,The 100 managed to weave in new meanings for bothyour fight is over andmay we meet again. That, at least, is poetically done, though I wish that everything leading up to it had been so different.

Final Thoughts

Well, that was certainly an episode of television. What did you think of The 100s series finale?

Natalie Zutter will someday rewatchThe 100, but will probably stop at cryosleep and call it a day. Share your thoughts on the series with her on Twitter!

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The 100 Series Finale Completely Misses the Point of the Show - tor.com

Human Behavior

Archaeologists determined the step-by-step path taken by the first people to settle the Caribbean islands – The Conversation US

For the millions of people around the world who live on islands today, a plane or boat can easily enough carry them to the mainland or other islands.

But how did people in the ancient past first make it to distant islands they couldnt even see from home? Many islands around the world can be reached only by traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles across open water, yet nearly all islands that people live on were settled by between 800 to 1,000 years ago.

Archaeologists like us want to understand why people would risk their lives to reach these far-off places, what kinds of boat and navigational methods they used, and what other technologies they invented to make it. Islands are important places to study because they hold clues about human endurance and survival in different kinds of environments.

One of the most interesting places to study these processes is the Caribbean, the only region of the Americas where people settled an archipelago with some islands not visible from surrounding areas. Despite more than a century of research, there are still many questions about the origins of the first Caribbean people, when they migrated and what routes they took. My colleagues and I recently reanalyzed archaeological data collected over 60 years to answer these fundamental questions.

Based on the discovery of unique stone tools and food remains such as shells and bones, archaeologists have a general understanding that people first spread throughout the Caribbean in a series of migrations that probably began at least 7,000 years ago and likely originated from northern South America.

Amerindians paddled between islands in dugout canoes and were remarkably adept at open-water travel. Archaeologists dont know what inspired people to first colonize the Caribbean islands, but we do know they brought plants and animals from the mainland, like manioc and oppossum, to help ensure their survival.

There are two main ideas about what happened. For decades, the prevailing notion was that people migrated from South America into the Antilles in a south-to-north stepping-stone pattern. Because the islands stretch in a gentle arc from Grenada all the way up to Cuba in the northwest with many largely visible from one to the next this would seem to provide a convenient path for early settlers.

This hypothesis, however, has been challenged by evidence that some of the earliest sites are in the northern islands. Analyses of wind and ocean currents suggest that it was actually easier to travel directly between South America and the northern Caribbean before moving in a southerly direction. Researchers call this proposal of a north-to-south migration the southward route hypothesis.

Figuring out which model for settling the Caribbean best fits the evidence depends on being able to assign accurate dates to human activity preserved in the archaeological record. To do this, researchers need a lot of reliable dates from many different sites throughout the islands to establish how, when and from where people landed.

Archaeologists typically use a technique called radiocarbon dating to figure out how old an artifact is. When an organism dies, it stops producing carbon and its remaining carbon decays at a fixed rate of time archaeologists say death starts the clock. By measuring the amount of carbon left in the organism and then performing a few additional calculations, scientists are left with a probable age range for when that organism died.

Archaeologists often date things like food remains, charcoal from cooking hearths or wood in the building where they are found. If archaeologists date shells found in a trash heap, they can tell, usually within a range of 25 to 50 years or so, when that shellfish was harvested for a meal.

We recently reevaluated about 2,500 radiocarbon dates from hundreds of archaeological sites on more than 50 Caribbean islands.

Archaeologists have been radiocarbon dating findings in the Caribbean since the 1950s when the radiocarbon technique was first discovered. But dating methods and the standards scientists follow have improved dramatically since then. Part of our job was to see if each of the 2,500 radiocarbon dates available would meet todays standards. Dates that did not meet those standards were thrown out, leaving us with a smaller database of only the most reliable times for human activity.

By statistically analyzing these remaining dates, we confirmed that Trinidad was the first Caribbean island settled by humans, at least 7,000 years ago. However, Trinidad is so close to South America that only simple or even no boats were needed to get there.

After Trinidad, the oldest settlements occurred between 6,000 and 5,000 years ago in the northern Caribbean on the large islands of the Greater Antilles: Cuba, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. Reaching them would have required crossing passages of water where no islands were visible to the naked eye, although navigators rely on other wayfinding techniques like current, cloud patterns, seeing birds fly in a certain direction to know if land is out there. By around 2,500 years ago, people had spread out to settle other islands in the northern Lesser Antilles, including Antigua and Barbuda.

Based on these data, the patterns of initial settlement of the Caribbean are most consistent with the southward route hypothesis.

Around 1,800 years ago, a new wave of people also moved from South America into the Lesser Antilles, colonizing many of the remaining uninhabited islands. About 1,000 years later, their descendants moved into the smaller islands of the Greater Antilles and Bahamian archipelago. This is when Jamaica and the Bahamas were settled for the first time.

Our research findings also support the widely held view that environment played a significant role in how and when islands were settled.

Archaeologists know that once people settled islands, they frequently moved between them. Not all islands are the same, and some offered more or better resources than others. For example, in the Bahamas and the Grenadines, the primary way to access freshwater is by digging wells; there are no streams or springs. Some islands lacked clay for making pottery, which was important for cooking and storing food. People may have also traveled to different islands to access preferred fishing or hunting spots or seek out marriage partners.

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Strong seasonal winds and currents facilitated travel between islands. Thats also probably one of the reasons why Caribbean people never developed the sail or other seafaring technologies that were used in the Pacific, Mediterranean and North Atlantic around the same time. Dugout canoes crossed between South America and the islands just fine.

Interpretations of past human behavior at archaeological sites are anchored by radiocarbon dates to study change over time. For archaeologists, its important to periodically take another look at the data to make sure that the narratives built on those data are reliable. Our review of the radiocarbon record for the Caribbean allowed us to show with increased accuracy the ways in which the region was first colonized by people, how they interacted and moved between islands, and how their societies developed following initial colonization.

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Archaeologists determined the step-by-step path taken by the first people to settle the Caribbean islands - The Conversation US

Embryology

The funeral director giving the gift of life – by donating eggs – Nottinghamshire Live

A funeral director has given the gift of life three times - by donating her eggs.

Mum-of-two Leanne Armstrong heard an advert on the radio calling for egg donors in late 2009 as she drove to work and appreciating the importance of life through her dealings with grieving families immediately volunteered.

She had her first treatment six months later and has now donated her eggs on half a dozen occasions in six years.

Leanne, 39, says the children she helped to create can expect a hero's welcome if they ever come to her door.

She said: Id say to them, Yes, come and find me knock on the door.

Im quite curious to know how they look and whether they are well, but Im more intrigued by the recipients. Id love to hear their stories.

Leanne is now classed as too old to donate, as Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) rules limit donors to women aged between 18 and 35 apart from in exceptional circumstance.

Instead, she is waiting in happy anticipation for any of the children produced by her eggs to track her down.

Leanne, whose children, Elise, 16, and Nyle, 11, are from a previous relationship and is now engaged to Dan, 53, says she had no idea egg donation was possible until she heard the radio advert.

For the last two years, she has volunteered as an ambassador, working to raise awareness of the process.

Altrui, part of Apricity, specialises in finding, matching and looking after altruistic egg donors with one-to-one, anonymous donation.

She said: Id never heard of egg donation before listening to the advert, but working in my industry and dealing with death makes you treasure life so much that it really hit home.

I cant imagine wanting to start a family and never being able to.

And now that I cant donate eggs myself anymore, I spend a lot of my time helping other potential donors.

Leanne, of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, continued: Its one thing reading a fact box about egg donation, its another hearing it from people who have first-hand experience of it.

Within three months of putting her name forward, Leanne had a series of blood tests, her egg count was determined and she had several counselling sessions.

Given the green light to proceed in 2010, it was her daughter, Elise, who helped her inject hormonal treatments for 10 days, to stimulate her egg growth, before having them harvested.

Within two weeks, Leanne received a phone call from the clinic, saying her egg had led to a positive pregnancy test for the recipient but that, sadly, later on, they had miscarried.

She said it just made her want to donate again so six months later, she did exactly that.

Donating her eggs four more times over the next five years, she was elated to find out that three of the four attempts resulted in a successful pregnancy and birth.

As it is illegal in the UK for egg donors to receive anything more than expenses which can be up to 750 it is a purely altruistic act.

Leanne said: I got the cost of childcare covered and the train ticket to the clinic.

Its not about financial gain though, its about helping people who are desperate to start a family to achieve their dream.

All Leanne knows about the children she helped make possible, is that two are boys and one is a girl.

All could be revealed one day, as in April 2005, HFEA rules changed, allowing people conceived through egg donation to find out their donors full name, date of birth, and current address when they turn 18.

Leanne said: I always knew they could track me down one day and thats fine.

Of course, Id be interested in seeing who they are and knowing they are well, but mainly, I feel it is a great honour to have been able to help another woman to start a family.

My main goal is to raise as much awareness about egg donation as possible it really is one of the best things Ive ever done.

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The funeral director giving the gift of life - by donating eggs - Nottinghamshire Live

Embryology

Your Ultimate Guide To Egg Freezing From The Experts – GLAMOUR UK

Whether you want children in the future, are undecided, or want to preserve your options due to medical reasons, the decision to freeze your eggs has become far more accessible over the last decade or so. Numerous fertility clinics have opened up across the globe, not to mention the technological innovation behind fertility treatments, which has served to promote the process further.

However, theres still a lot of confusion as to what it actually entails, and a lot of debate over the success rates. Here, we speak to some of the experts in the field to clear up everything you need to know about freezing your eggs.

There are many reasons why someone might decide to freeze their eggs, and each decision is extremely personal and unique. One of the most common reasons is that a woman isnt ready to have children or hasn't met the right person, but knows she wants children one day. Another common reason is if a woman is scheduled to receive medical treatments that affect fertility like chemotherapy, and freezing eggs helps to preserve the chance of having children down the line. Others may be inclined to freeze their eggs because they havent decided on whether or not they want children, but want to remove any feeling of time pressure from their decision making process.

The egg freezing process is similar to a cycle of IVF, except the fertilisation and embryo transfer happens at a later date explains Dr Ippokratis Sarris, Director at King's Fertility. Initially a course of daily injections (usually 2 different medications, or sometimes 3) are self-administered by the woman. These aim to stimulate the ovaries to produce a number of growing follicles (fluid-filled sacs within which the eggs reside) and also to control the ovulation so that these eggs can be collected.

The daily injections continue for a couple of weeks, known as the stimulation phase. During this phase, ultrasound scans are performed every few days looking at the ovaries in order to monitor the progress of the growing follicles and occasionally a blood test to check hormone levels, says Dr Sarris. Once the follicles have grown sufficiently, and to a size where it is expected that a mature egg will be retrieved, a final maturation injection is given, followed by the egg collecting procedure two days later.

The collection procedure itself is carried out under anaesthetic (usually sedation, but sometimes local or general anaesthetic is used). Using ultrasound guidance, a needle is passed through the vagina wall, then into the ovaries, and into each of the follicles, explains Dr Sarris. The fluid from within the follicles is drawn out and taken to the laboratory. An embryologist will look at this under a microscope in order to retrieve the eggs. The eggs are then checked for maturity and frozen within a few hours after the procedure.

Theyre frozen using fast-freezing process called vitrification, and stored in specialised cryotanks. The tanks are constantly monitored electronically and maintained, and the eggs can remain there for as long as the patient requires them.

According to the experts, the number of eggs collected can vary from woman to woman. On average, around 10 eggs are collected with any treatment cycle, although this very much depends on a woman's age and her egg reserve, says Dr James Nicopoullos, Medical Director at the Lister Fertility Clinic. Some may be able to produce significantly more on an even cycle and unfortunately some less, with the key being the investigations we do prior to this to help us council the patients as to what to expect and whether it is the right thing for them.

The procedure usually lasts 20-30 minutes, and after 1-2 hours of recovery, the woman can go home, says Dr Sarris. There might be a small amount of spotting from the vagina, and occasionally discomfort over the lower abdomen. However, simple pain relief medication (such as paracetamol or ibuprofen) is usually adequate in controlling it. The woman should be able to return to normal activities by the next day, and the period should arrive within the next 2 weeks. After that, the body should be back to normal and all the effects of the hormones should have passed.

Its possible to have the egg fertilised with sperm before freezing, making it a frozen embryo - however, there are many things to think about before doing so. My recommendation to any single woman would always be to freeze eggs initially for fertility preservation, says Dr Nicopoullos. The key with egg freezing is to give women reproductive choices and should she want to have a family with a future partner, having these eggs frozen will allow them to be thawed and fertilised with his sperm. If however she freezes embryos, i.e. fertilises her eggs with donor sperm before freezing, she won't have this option available to her.

Dr Sarris raises another key consideration; The downside is that the embryo legally belongs to two people (whoever provided the egg and sperm gametes), whereas, the egg just belongs to the woman and she can decide how it is used entirely independently.

The current legal time limit that an egg can be frozen for is 10 years unless theres medical reasoning to extend it, for example, if the woman was undergoing cancer treatment at a young age. There are current calls for the government to extend this limit.

According to Dr Sarris, when a patient wants to use their eggs, they effectively need to resume the process of the original cycle of IVF which stopped at the egg collection stage. The egg is thawed and fertilised by the sperm, he says. If the egg is successfully fertilised, it then becomes an embryo which is grown in the lab over the next few days and either be put back into the womans womb or it can be frozen again (this time as an embryo).

In order for a woman to have the embryo transferred into her womb, it has to be done in an embryo transfer cycle. This can be done in two ways, either the clinic will monitor the womans natural cycle and transfer the embryo at an appropriate time after ovulation, or the clinic can recreate a natural cycle by prescribing certain medicines that prepare the lining of the womb for the embryo to implant.

According to Dr Nicopoullos, the implantation process is very quick and no more invasive than a cervical smear test.

Success rates vary dramatically based on multiple factors, including the womans age at the time of egg collection (the younger the eggs, the higher the success rate), and her general health. Success rate of frozen eggs remains under some debate, says Dr Nicopoullos, but theres increasing research suggesting that success rates of using a frozen embryo are as similar to using a fresh embryo.

Dr Sarris explains that if the eggs are frozen at a clinically optimum age then the chances of success will be higher. However, it should be noted that obstetric (pregnancy) complications increase with a womans age. In addition, success is also dependent on how technically proficient the clinic is that freezes and thaws the eggs. Overall, he says the absolute chance of an egg giving a baby can vary from as low as 1% per egg to 5-6% per egg.

Lord Robert Winston, professor of fertility studies at Imperial College London and expert on egg freezing and IVF has publicly warned that success rates can be misleading. Speaking on BBC Radio 4 Todays programme, Lord Winston described the process as a very unsuccessful technology with a success rate of around 1%. However, he later clarified that he was referring to the number of live births, rather than the number of pregnancies. Sometimes, when a clinic gives a success rate, they are actually referring to the number of successful implantations into the womb (and subsequent pregnancies) rather than the live birth rate. The distinction between the two definitions of success can result in vastly different figures.

According to The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, in 2015, 2% of all thawed eggs ended up as pregnancies and 0.7% resulted in live births.

The average cost for one round of treatment is between 3500 to 4500, and there's usually an annual fee for storing the eggs of around 200 to 400 depending on the clinic. If you are receiving medical treatment that affects your fertility, you may be able to get egg freezing on the NHS.

Its up to the woman what happens to her eggs if she no longer wants to continue freezing them. They can either be discarded or donated to medical research.

Link:
Your Ultimate Guide To Egg Freezing From The Experts - GLAMOUR UK

Embryology

GUEST VIEW: Darwins theory is true and consistent with religion – Utica Observer Dispatch

Frank Price| Observer-Dispatch

A Sept. 4 letter to the editor denigrating evolution contains numerous errors and misunderstandings which perpetuate the myth that science and religion are incompatible.

Darwins theory of evolution doesn't contribute to "lawlessness and godlessness." Millions of people here and in other countries who accept the reality of evolution live exemplary lives. (And many God-fearing people commit crimes.)

Science, in general, and evolution, in particular, do not deny God's existence. Science deals only with natural phenomenal involving space, time, matter and energy. God exists outside space and time, so science cannot say anything about Gods existence or nonexistence. Science is not an atheist religion. True, some scientists are atheists but so are many businessmen, plumbers and farmers.

Like many businessmen, plumbers and farmers, many scientists are religious. One example is Francis Collins, an evangelical Christian who directed the Human Genome Project and is currently director of the National Institutes of Health.

Collins is one of many scientific consultants to The Clergy Letter Project (TheClergyLetterProject.org). The project aims to demonstrate that religion and science can be compatible and to elevate the quality of the debate of this issue." It contains separate letters signed by more than 17,000 Christian, Jewish, Unitarian and other clergy members.

The Christian Clergy Letter, signed by more than 15,000 clergy, reads in part,

We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. To reject this truth or to treat it as one theory among others is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children. We believe that among Gods good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator.

For the last 15 years, the project has sponsored Evolution Weekends near Darwin's Feb. 12 birthday. Congregations address issues on a theme related to science and religion through sermons, discussion groups, conversations and seminars.

This year, 232 congregations in 42 states, D.C., and six countries participated. More than 1,000 scientists from all 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, and 31 countries have signed on to serve as technical consultants to congregations.

All of the above demonstrates that the author of the 9/4 letter is clearly out of step with modern scientists and clergy. The supposed incompatibility of science and religion is actually a continuation of the age-old theological debate over whether particular sacred texts should be interpreted literally. For one example, St. Augustines 4th century A.D. book, On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis was not written in response to either the scientific revolution or Darwin's theory.

Theology aside, the letters author is also wrong about evidence for evolution. We have found numerous fossils intermediate between groups such as fish and amphibians[1] and other major life forms. In addition, we have observed the origin of new species in both nature[2] and in the lab[3].

Evolution is consistent with all known scientific laws. The writer cited the second law of thermodynamics. It states that in isolated systems matter goes from order to disorder. Anti-evolutionists mistakenly claim that abiogenesis and evolution represent increases in order and contradict the second law. However, living things are not isolated systems. Growth of human beings from fertilized egg to adult shows that order and complexity can increase.[4] Antievolutionists cannot deny the facts of embryology and human development, but blindly deny evolution.

In conclusion, the writer of the Sept. 4 letter is grossly mistaken about both science and religion. He is trying to push his religion into public school science classes, to unconstitutionally indoctrinate the children of those of us who dont subscribe to his narrow, distorted and false views.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiktaalik#Discovery

[2]https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/100201_speciation

[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laboratory_experiments_of_speciation

[4]https://www.learnreligions.com/second-law-of-thermodynamics-and-evolution-3994654

Frank Price is aretired Hamilton College professorwho lives in Clinton.

Excerpt from:
GUEST VIEW: Darwins theory is true and consistent with religion - Utica Observer Dispatch

Neuroscience

The Antibody Revolution in Neuroscience – Technology Networks

From cancer immunotherapy to fighting viruses, the adaptation of the bodys immune system to serve science has been a huge source of innovation across biology.

The use of immune molecules called antibodies in neuroscience research is another example of this revolution in action.

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The Antibody Revolution in Neuroscience - Technology Networks

Neuroscience

The neuroscience of thirst – Tech Explorist

A new study has demonstrated how and which activities outside of the brain contribute to feeling thirsty. The discovery offers a rich neurobiological clarification for a phenomenon that each of us has experienced many times in our lives.

The study identifies previously unknown body-to-brain pathways that work together to govern this fundamental sensation. For this study, Chris Zimmerman (postdoctoral fellow at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute) has received the 2020 Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology.

The study reveals that signals arise from the mouth and gut, providing predictive information to brain neurons that use these signals to satiate or convey thirst upon eating or drinking.

Zimmerman said,What we have learned about the thirst system should improve our understanding of the brain systems that become dysfunctional in eating disorders, such as obesity and anorexia nervosa, and motivation disorders such as addiction and anhedonia, for example, which could someday lead to new therapies for these diseases.

In the 1950s, Bengt Andersson proposed an answer to the question: where does this sensation come from? He suggested that our brains might contain an osmosensor governs thirst, which consists of a group of cells that sense when dehydrated by directly monitoring the bloods osmolarity.

For the experiments, he systematically infused salt into the brains of goats to locate this osmosensor. He ultimately discovered a small area within the hypothalamus where even minute amounts of salt triggered immediate, voracious drinking. Subsequent studies established that Anderssons osmosensor encompasses the subfornical organ (SFO), a brain region that is distinctively suited to detecting blood osmolarity because it lies outside the blood-brain barrier.

Zimmerman noted a few unresolved gaps in Anderssons study. For one, considering how long it takes for ingested food or water to enter the bloodstream, its a mystery how a gulp of (often cold) water can immediately quench thirst, or how we can crave a drink shortly after a few bites of food. These quick changes in thirst sensations suggest that the sensory cue is regulated on a moment-by-moment basis, operating on a timescale thats quicker than the passage of information through the bloodstream.

Zimmerman said,The traditional model for how these brain structures function, as simple dehydration sensors, was entrenched and written into the textbooks. Demonstrating that thirst neurons also receive predictive sensory information from the rest of the body led us to rewrite these traditional models.

To explore this phenomenon, Zimmerman and his team started by suggesting stimulating and recording calcium movement in mices brains using optical fibers to pinpoint precisely how SFO neurons sense thirst. They affirmed that the thirst neurons could detect a lack of hydration levels by monitoring increases in particle concentration in the blood. In any case, incredibly, the thirst neurons likewise diminished activity when the mouse drank water and increased activity with food intake, suggesting that thirst neurons regulation happened even before chemicals from food and fluids infiltrated the blood.

Zimmerman thus postulated that the second set of signals in addition to input from the bloodstream might feed into the SFO to help the brain dynamically manage a sense of thirst in real-time. Aiming to detect these signals and their origins, he and his team traced the flow of water through the oral and digestive tracts in mice.

They found that as soon as water entered the mouth, the body triggered a near-instantaneous cell signaling pathway that closely tracked the volume of water ingested and inhibited thirst signals from the SFO accordingly.

Zimmerman said,Cold water was particularly effective at inhibiting SFO neurons during this process, which may explain why we find cooler drinks, especially thirst-quenching and pleasurable.

Further mouse experiments where water was directly delivered through an opening on the stomach wall to model the swallowing of fluid revealed a similar body-to-brain signaling pathway in the gut. Once water entered the gut, the body transmitted rapid measurements of real-time particle concentrations in the gut via the brains vagus nerve.

In light of these discoveries and upheld by additional cell imaging examinations, scientists built a potential model for how the body-to-brain signaling pathway coordinates thirst sensation. They suggest that layers of signals emerge from the mouth, gut, and blood and combine in the SFO.

Here, thirst neurons integrate the array of information from various sources to monitor the bodys hydration level, manage the appropriate level of thirst sensation, and provide guidance on whether to continue ingesting water or food. A parallel series of investigations likewise recommended that the body-to-brain regulation of thirst neurons controls downstream signals to change hormone release and emotions.

Zimmerman explained,There may be instances when overwriting the cues related to satisfying thirst is necessary. For one, patients are asked not to consume water before undergoing surgery a common hospital practice. In rare instances, when thirst becomes pathological, patients must overwrite the cue of drinking water to avoid increases in blood pressure and stress in the kidneys. In both cases, doctors prescribe sucking on ice chips and popsicles, or wetting the mouth, triggering the immediate signaling pathway to cope with thirst sensation.

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The neuroscience of thirst - Tech Explorist

Neuroscience

Grant to aid in developing new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease – Lethbridge Herald

By Jensen, Randy on October 1, 2020.

LETHBRIDGE HERALD

The University of Lethbridges Majid Mohajerani and two partners from Laval University are creating new tools for neuroscience research that theyll use to test out a promising drug target for Alzheimers disease. If successful, their research could lead to new treatments to prevent the onset of Alzheimers disease symptoms, delay progression of the disease or even restore normal function after symptoms have appeared.

The research is made possible thanks to a grant of nearly $1 million over three years from the Weston Brain Institute, a non-profit institute of the W. Garfield Weston Foundation that supports world-class neuroscience research to accelerate discovery of treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons.

New treatments for these diseases are critically needed, says Mohajerani, a professor of neuroscience at the U of Ls Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN), in a news release. Alzheimers disease has an enormous impact on patients, the health-care system and society. This is only anticipated to get worse as the population ages. Current treatments for Alzheimers disease only address some of the symptoms. They do not prevent or alter the course of the disease.

In the project, Mohajerani, along with Laval Universitys Benoit Gosselin and Yves De Koninck, will develop a device that allows for minimally invasive stimulation and recording of brain activity in mice in their home cages. The device includes a wireless transmitter, thus removing the need for the animal to be taken from its home cage and hooked up to wires in the lab. This implant will be combined with an automated monitoring system, currently under development at the CCBN, that records the animals natural behaviour. Together, these devices will allow scientists to measure the brain activity and behaviour of an animal in its home environment over days, weeks or even months.

The technology will enable them to address the idea that abnormal brain activity, characterized by an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory connections in the brain, underlies the early progression of Alzheimers. De Koninck is a world expert on a certain protein, found on the outer membranes of cells within the nervous system, called potassium chloride co-transporter 2 (KCC2). An increase or decrease in the production of KCC2 affects the balance of inhibitory and excitatory activity in the brain. Pharmaceutical tools that target KCC2 might thus be able to correct the imbalance observed in Alzheimers, as well as other nervous system disorders such as chronic pain.

We are using drugs that modulate the expression of KCC2, says Mohajerani. We will increase and also decrease the production of KCC2 to study both effects. We will explore if activation of KCC2, by boosting neuronal inhibition, can reduce the progression of the disease and if inhibition of KCC2 will increase the progression of the disease.

Using genetically modified mice that model Alzheimers disease pathology and symptoms, the project aims to accelerate the development of therapeutics for Alzheimers by testing how altering KCC2 function affects brain activity and behaviour during disease progression in living animals. If successful, this research would implicate KCC2 as an entirely new drug target for mitigating Alzheimers disease.

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Grant to aid in developing new treatments for Alzheimer's disease - Lethbridge Herald

Neuroscience

Tips to help avoid getting sick as cold and flu season approaches – WTOP

Are you ready for the cold and flu season? Be prepared and make sure you're setting your immune system up for success, a doctor advises.

Are you getting enough vitamin D? It might help keep you from getting sick. Combine the upcoming cold and flu season with the COVID-19 pandemic and its never been more important to have a strong immune system.

Vitamin D is one of the things we really want to make sure we get enough of, especially now, assistant professor of neuroscience Dr. Nicole M. Avena said. Its really one of the critical nutrients that helps to support and boost our immunity.

Avena, who has a doctorate in neuroscience and psychology, teaches at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and is a visiting professor of health psychology at Princeton University.

A lot of people are deficient in vitamin D and dont even realize it, she said.

And in winter months, people get less vitamin D naturally from the sun. Signs of vitamin D deficiency include lethargy feeling tired.

Also, when you have low vitamin D, it puts you at risk for having issues related to calcium absorption, which puts you more at risk for broken bones, or improper healing of fractures, Avena said.

To help ensure youre getting all the vitamins and micronutrientsyou need to stay healthy, Avena recommends eating a wide variety of different fruits, vegetables and proteins.

If were deficient in one or more micronutrients, then our body has to work harder to make up for that deficiency, Avena said. We have a really effective immune system that can work really, really well if our body doesnt have to be devoting its resources to other aspects of our health.

If you cant get the nutrition you need from food alone and your doctor OKs supplements, there are lots of options to swallowing potentially big pills. There are gummies, liquids and sublingual options that dissolve under your tongue.

Your lifestyle also can influence whether your immune system is strong.

Are you getting enough rest? One bad night isnt such a big problem, but Avena said sleep deficits over time can compromise your immune system.

We need to be getting the appropriate amount of sleep every night so our body can be rested and it can recharge, Avena said.

Also, chill out. When we are stressed and anxious, our body has to work harder to produce cortisol to fight these stressors internally and that leaves fewer resources available to support our immune health, she said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, exercise improves sleep and reduces anxiety.

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Tips to help avoid getting sick as cold and flu season approaches - WTOP

Neuroscience

The sameness of life in the pandemic could be affecting your neurons – Hindustan Times

Do the days seem without structure, the weeks and months a blur? It could be the effect of the sameness of life in the pandemic, on neurons in the brain.

A paper published in Journal of Neuroscience in September indicates that sameness of stimuli makes certain neurons weary, altering our perception of time.

The paper was co-authored by Masamichi Hayashi at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology in Suita, Japan, and Richard Ivry at the University of California, Berkeley. Hayashi and Ivry scanned volunteers brains while showing them the same scene a grey spot on a screen 30 times without pause.

After the period of adaptation, participants saw the grey spot again, but for different lengths of time. Then, they estimated how long the object had stayed on screen. Participants could not effectively tell the difference between the durations; at the same time, scans showed decreased activity in a group of brain cells involved in time perception, indicating neuron fatigue, the report states.

Ive always been interested in the neural mechanism of time perception, Hayashi told HT. How is the time experience represented in our brains? Why does time pass so quickly when you are having fun? Why does time slow down when you get into a car accident?

In 2015, Hayashi and Ivry began conducting behavioural experiments to confirm their own earlier brain scan experiment in this area of study. Their volunteers were mainly students aged 18 to 27.

Our experience of time during the pandemic is probably associated with more memory-based recognition of time the perception of time in the passing of days and months which is a different area from the precise focus of our study, Hayashi says. Time estimation in the range of hundreds of milliseconds is important for a variety of daily activities, such as motor control, speech recognition and generation, playing instruments, dancing, etc. We still need to test, but I believe these time-sensitive neurons are involved in these timing-related activities too.

The reports findings may have other real-world applications. Distortions in time perception and timed performances appear in patients with Parkinsons disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism. We hope that our findings will provide some insight to understand these disorders, Hayashi says.

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The sameness of life in the pandemic could be affecting your neurons - Hindustan Times