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#labrador #labsofinstagram #animals #pets

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Allergy Season Explained

Happy First Day of Spring, Tumblr! 

What better way to celebrate than to **ACHOO!!**….wait, what were we saying?

Ah, spring! Grass growing, flowers blooming, trees growing new leaves, but if you get allergies, this explosion of new life probably inspires more dread than joy.  

Step outside, and within minutes, you’re sneezing and congested. Your nose is running, your eyes are swollen and watery, your throat is itchy. For you and millions of others, it’s seasonal allergy time. So what’s behind this onslaught of mucus?

The answer lies within you. It’s your immune system. Seasonal allergies, also called hay fever, or allergic rhinitis, are a hypersensitive immune response to something that’s not actually harmful. Pollen from trees and grass, and mold spores from tiny fungi find their way into your mucous membranes and your body attacks these innocuous travelers the same way it would infectious bacteria. 

The immune system has a memory. When a foreign substance gets tagged as threatening, white blood cells produce customized antibodies that will recognize the offender the next time around. They then promptly recruit the body’s defense team. But sometimes, the immune system accidentally discriminates against harmless substances, like pollen. When it wafts in again, antibodies on the surface of white blood cells recognize it and latch on.

This triggers the cell to release inflammatory chemicals, like histamine, which stimulate nerve cells, and cause blood vessels in the mucous membranes to swell and leak fluid. In other words, itchiness, sneezing, congestion, and a runny nose. 

Allergies usually, but not always, show up for the first time during childhood. But why do some people get allergies and others don’t? Allergies tend to run in families, so genetics may be one culprit. In fact, errors in a gene that helps regulate the immune system are associated with higher rates of allergies. The environment you grow up in matters, too. Being exposed to an allergen as a baby makes you less likely to actually develop an allergy to it. People who grow up on farms, in big families, and in the developing world also tend to have fewer allergies, although there are plenty of exceptions, partly thanks to genetics. One theory is that as children, they encounter more of the microbes and parasites that co-evolved with traditional hunter-gatherer societies.

Called the hygiene hypothesis, the idea is that when the immune system isn’t exposed to the familiar cast of microbes, it’ll keep itself busy mounting defenses against harmless substances, like pollen. Another theory is that an immune system toughened up by a barrage of pathogens is less likely to overreact to allergens. Pollen is a common offender, just because we encounter so much of it, but there’s a long list of substances: dust, animal dander, insect venom, medications, certain foods, that can send your immune system into overdrive. Some of these reactions can be scary. An allergy can develop into full-blown anaphylaxis, which typically brings on severe swelling, shortness of breath, and very low blood pressure. It can be deadly.

But as we who suffer from seasonal allergies know, even non-life threatening allergy symptoms can make you miserable. So what can you do about it? Medications can help reduce the symptoms. The most common ones keep histamines from binding to your cells. These antihistamines stop the inflammation response. Steroids can help dial down the immune system. Another more permanent option is immunotherapy. Deliberate, controlled exposure to gradually increasing amounts of an allergen can teach the immune system that it isn’t dangerous after all. 

Of course, you can always just wait your seasonal allergies out. The spring pollen onslaught dwindles by mid-summer…just in time for ragweed season!

From the TED-Ed Lesson Why do people have seasonal allergies? - Eleanor Nelsen 

Animation by TED-Ed

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How do vaccines work?

Using the same principles that the body uses to defend itself, scientists use vaccines to trigger the body’s adaptive immune system, without exposing humans to the full strength disease. This has resulted in many vaccines, which each work uniquely, separated into many different types.

First, we have live attenuated vaccines. These are made of the pathogen itself, but a much weaker and tamer version.

Next, we have inactive vaccines, in which the pathogens have been killed. The weakening and inactivation in both types of vaccine ensures that pathogens don’t develop into the full-blown disease. But just like a disease, they trigger an immune response, teaching the body to recognize and attack by making a profile of pathogens in preparation.

Another type, the subunit vaccine, is only made from one part of the pathogen, called an antigen, the ingredient that actually triggers the immune response. By even further isolating specific components of antigens, like proteins or polysaccharides, these vaccines can prompt specific responses.

Scientists are now building a whole new range of vaccines called DNA vaccines. For this variety, they isolate the very genes that make the specific antigens the body needs to trigger its immune response to specific pathogens. When injected into the human body, those genes instruct cells in the body to make the antigens. This causes a stronger immune response and prepares the body for any future threats, and because the vaccine only includes specific genetic material, it doesn’t include any other ingredients from the rest of the pathogen.

If these vaccines become a success, we might be able to build more effective treatments for invasive pathogens in years to come.

To learn more about the body’s adaptive immune system and how vaccines work, watch the TED-Ed Lesson How do vaccines work? - Kelwalin Dhanasarnsombut

Animation by Cinematic

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Have a lazy weekend ❤

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I believe in free education, one that’s available to everyone; no matter their race, gender, age, wealth, etc… This masterpost was created for every knowledge hungry individual out there. I hope it will serve you well. Enjoy!

FREE ONLINE COURSES (here are listed websites that provide huge variety of courses)

Alison 

Coursera

FutureLearn

open2study

Khan Academy

edX

P2P U

Academic Earth

iversity

Stanford Online

MIT Open Courseware

Open Yale Courses

BBC Learning

OpenLearn

Carnegie Mellon University OLI

University of Reddit

Saylor

IDEAS, INSPIRATION & NEWS (websites which deliver educational content meant to entertain you and stimulate your brain)

TED

FORA

Big Think 

99u

BBC Future

Seriously Amazing

How Stuff Works

Discovery News

National Geographic

Science News

Popular Science

IFLScience

YouTube Edu

NewScientist

DIY & HOW-TO’S (Don’t know how to do that? Want to learn how to do it yourself? Here are some great websites.)

wikiHow

Wonder How To

instructables

eHow

Howcast

MAKE

Do it yourself

FREE TEXTBOOKS & E-BOOKS

OpenStax CNX

Open Textbooks

Bookboon

Textbook Revolution

E-books Directory

FullBooks

Books Should Be Free

Classic Reader

Read Print

Project Gutenberg

AudioBooks For Free

LibriVox

Poem Hunter

Bartleby

MIT Classics

Many Books

Open Textbooks BCcampus

Open Textbook Library

WikiBooks

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES & JOURNALS

Directory of Open Access Journals

Scitable

PLOS

Wiley Open Access

Springer Open

Oxford Open

Elsevier Open Access

ArXiv

Open Access Library

LEARN:

1. LANGUAGES

Duolingo

BBC Languages

Learn A Language

101languages

Memrise

Livemocha

Foreign Services Institute

My Languages

Surface Languages

Lingualia

OmniGlot

OpenCulture’s Language links

2. COMPUTER SCIENCE & PROGRAMMING

Codecademy

Programmr

GA Dash

CodeHS

w3schools

Code Avengers

Codelearn

The Code Player

Code School

Code.org

Programming Motherf*?$%#

Bento

Bucky’s room

WiBit

Learn Code the Hard Way

Mozilla Developer Network

Microsoft Virtual Academy

3. YOGA & MEDITATION

Learning Yoga

Learn Meditation

Yome

Free Meditation

Online Meditation

Do Yoga With Me

Yoga Learning Center

4. PHOTOGRAPHY & FILMMAKING

Exposure Guide

The Bastards Book of Photography

Cambridge in Color

Best Photo Lessons

Photography Course

Production Now

nyvs

Learn About Film

Film School Online

5. DRAWING & PAINTING

Enliighten

Ctrl+Paint

ArtGraphica

Google Cultural Institute

Drawspace

DragoArt

WetCanvas

6. INSTRUMENTS & MUSIC THEORY

Music Theory

Teoria

Music Theory Videos

Furmanczyk Academy of Music

Dave Conservatoire

Petrucci Music Library

Justin Guitar

Guitar Lessons

Piano Lessons

Zebra Keys

Play Bass Now

7. OTHER UNCATEGORIZED SKILLS

Investopedia

The Chess Website

Chesscademy

Chess.com

Spreeder

ReadSpeeder

First Aid for Free

First Aid Web

NHS Choices

Wolfram Demonstrations Project

Please feel free to add more learning focused websites. 

*There are a lot more learning websites out there, but I picked the ones that are, as far as I’m aware, completely free and in my opinion the best/ most useful.

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Mouse study finds link between gut bacteria and neurogenesis

Antibiotics strong enough to kill off gut bacteria can also stop the growth of new brain cells in the hippocampus, a section of the brain associated with memory, reports a study in mice published May 19 in Cell Reports. Researchers also uncovered a clue to why– a type of white blood cell seems to act as a communicator between the brain, the immune system, and the gut.

“We found prolonged antibiotic treatment might impact brain function,” says senior author Susanne Asu Wolf of the Max-Delbrueck-Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, Germany. “But probiotics and exercise can balance brain plasticity and should be considered as a real treatment option.”

Wolf first saw clues that the immune system could influence the health and growth of brain cells through research into T cells nearly 10 years ago. But there were few studies that found a link from the brain to the immune system and back to the gut.

In the new study, the researchers gave a group of mice enough antibiotics for them to become nearly free of intestinal microbes. Compared to untreated mice, the mice who lost their healthy gut bacteria performed worse in memory tests and showed a loss of neurogenesis (new brain cells) in a section of their hippocampus that typically produces new brain cells throughout an individual’s lifetime. At the same time that the mice experienced memory and neurogenesis loss, the research team detected a lower level of white blood cells (specifically monocytes) marked with Ly6Chi in the brain, blood, and bone marrow. So researchers tested whether it was indeed the Ly6Chi monocytes behind the changes in neurogenesis and memory.

In another experiment, the research team compared untreated mice to mice that had healthy gut bacteria levels but low levels of Ly6Chi either due to genetics or due to treatment with antibodies that target Ly6Chi cells. In both cases, mice with low Ly6Chi levels showed the same memory and neurogenesis deficits as mice in the other experiment who had lost gut bacteria. Furthermore, if the researchers replaced the Ly6Chi levels in mice treated with antibiotics, then memory and neurogenesis improved.

“For us it was impressive to find these Ly6Chi cells that travel from the periphery to the brain, and if there’s something wrong in the microbiome, Ly6Chi acts as a communicating cell,” says Wolf.

Luckily, the adverse side effects of the antibiotics could be reversed. Mice who received probiotics or who exercised on a wheel after receiving antibiotics regained memory and neurogenesis. “The magnitude of the action of probiotics on Ly6Chi cells, neurogenesis, and cognition impressed me,” she says.

But one result in the experiment raised more questions about the gut’s bacteria and the link between Ly6Chi and the brain. While probiotics helped the mice regain memory, fecal transplants to restore a healthy gut bacteria did not have an effect.

“It was surprising that the normal fecal transplant recovered the broad gut bacteria, but did not recover neurogenesis,” says Wolf. “This might be a hint towards direct effects of antibiotics on neurogenesis without using the detour through the gut. To decipher this we might treat germ free mice without gut flora with antibiotics and see what is different.”

In the future, researchers also hope to see more clinical trials investigating whether probiotic treatments will improve symptoms in patients with neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders.“We could measure the outcome in mood, psychiatric symptoms, microbiome composition and immune cell function before and after probiotic treatment,” says Wolf.

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Dolphin tongue?

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Hi all! Grace here.

I am not yet studying Anatomy and probably won’t until next year, but I decided to look up sources relating to Anatomy and gather them here for future reference! I will be adding more to it as I find more. If you are currently studying Anatomy or already have, please let me know if there were sources you are using/did use that were/are helpful so I can add them! :)

Nurse Journal

Human Body Images

Gross Anatomy

E-Skeleton

Human Anatomy

Introduction to the Human Body

Digestive System: The Inside Story

Body Parts Game

The Immune System

Human Anatomy Learning Modules

The Respiratory System

Anatomy of the Eye

Digestive Disorders and Anatomy

Anatomy Flashcards

Human Anatomy and Physiology

Blood Type Lesson Plan

Introduction to Human Genetics

Anatomy of the Human Brain

Heart Anatomy

Anatomy of the Lungs

NYU Virtual Microscope

Muscle Quizzes

Parts of the Brain

Dermatology Glossary

Interactive Body Games

Anatomical Images

The Bone Box

Muscles of the Body

Anatomy and Physiology Course 

Human Body Maps

The Digestive System

Interactive Case Studies

Online Biology Book

Radiographic Anatomy 

Body Guide: Skin

Immunity Guide

Anatomy Self-Test

I hope this is helpful! x

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Since I get asked a lot about where to learn more about the human brain and behaviour, I’ve made a masterpost of books, websites, videos and online courses to introduce yourself to that piece of matter that sits between your ears.

Books

The Brain Book  by Rita Carter

The Pyschology Book (a good starter book)  by DK

Thinking, Fast and Slow  by Daniel Kahneman

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking  by Susan Cain

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat  by Oliver Sacks

The Brain: The Story of You  by David Eagleman

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science  by Norman Doidge

This Is Your Brain on Music  by Daniel Levitin

The Autistic Brain by Richard Panek and Temple Grandin (highly reccomended)

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind  by Yuval Noah Harari (not really brain-related, but it is single handedly the best book I have ever read)

Websites

@tobeagenius (shameless self-promotion)

How Stuff Works

Psych2Go

BrainFacts

Neuroscience for Kids (aimed at kids, but it has some good info)

New Scientist

National Geographic

Live Science

Videos & Youtube Channels

Mind Matters series by TedEd

Crash Course Psychology

SciShow Brain

Psych2Go TV

asapSCIENCE

Brain Craft

Its Okay To Be Smart

Online Courses

The Addicted Brain

Visual Perception and The Brain

Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life

Pyschology Of Popularity

Harvard Fundamentals Of Neuroscience

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Meet Sudan, the last male northern white rhino on Earth. We arrived at @olpejeta just before first light and this was the scene we saw as the sun came out and the clouds began to clear. We all stood in silence soaking up the beauty in front of us.// Today is #worldrhinoday. Join us today as we celebrate these beautiful creatures and the work that’s being done to ensure they stay on this planet—photo by James Suter @jamessuter shot on assignment for @unitedforwildlife, a global alliance of 7 NGOs, including @nature_africa. #africa #loveafrica #protectpreserve #wildlife #worldrhinoday2016 @worldrhinoday

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Disclaimer: These are online resources that I have found, They are not meant to be your only source of study, instead you can use them to your enhance your normal study. I don’t know what level these resources are aimed at, but I’ve tried to provide a range for a number of different topics.

The Body:

Teeth and Dentition

Take a look inside a cell (with some audio)

Explore human anatomy in 3D

Skeletal System

Muscular system

Cardiovascular system

Digestive system

Endocrine system

Nervous system

Immune/ Lymphatic system

Urinary system

Female reproductive system

Male reproductive system

What we didn’t know about penis anatomy - Ted Talks

Integumentary system

Sensory systems

3D Brain

Brain explorer program

How brains learn to see - Ted Talks

Body parts on a chip - Ted Talks

The real reason for brains - Ted Talks

A look inside the brain in real time - Ted Talks

Cells:

Amazing cells - inside a cell, how vesicles transport, communication during fight or flight, membranes.

Cell size and scale

The evolution of the cell

Interactive cell model 

The inside story of cell communication

Stem cells - cell differentiation, stem cells in use, potential use, stem cell debate.

Cloning

Animals and Plants:

Interactive tree of life

Buds and Twigs  (Background article: Buds and Twigs).

Seeds and Germination (Background article: Seed Structure). 

Vegetative Reproduction (Background article: Vegetative Reproduction).

Vegetative Reproduction - Tropical Examples

Flower Structure

Flower Structure - Tropical Examples

The beautiful tricks of flowers - Ted Talks

Fruit Formation

Fruit Formation - Tropical Examples

Protista 

Insect Life-Cycles 

Insect - Tropical. The Citrus Swallowtail Butterfly, Papilio demodocus 

Insects are awesome! - Ted talks

How a fly flies - Ted Talks

Fish: Characteristics 

Fish: Tilapia 

Amphibia 

Birds 

Fungi 

6 ways mushrooms can save the world - Ted Talks

Animals that amaze - Ted Talks

Humble plants that hide surprising secrets - Ted Talks

Genetics:

Alien population games

Make a Karyotype (game)

Pigeon Breeding: Genetics At Work

The secret of the bat genome - Ted Talks

The hunt for “unexpected genetic heroes” -Ted Talks

What’s a Genome? - An informative overview of genomics presented by the Genome News Network. Topics include: What’s a Genome?, What’s Genome Sequencing? and What’s a Genome Map?

The Animated Genome - A 5 minute film about DNA.

Discovery of DNA - An interactive timeline of scientific discoveries

Heredity

Family Health History

Genetic Traits

Mendelian Inheritance

Mitochondrial Inheritance

Multifactorial Inheritance/Complex Disease

Sexual Heredity vs Asexual Heredity

RNA

Structure of the double helix

Chromosome Map 3D Animation - A 3D animation of a chromosome map

DNA Molecule - How DNA is Packaged - An animation of the packaging of DNA into chromosomes

Introduction to inherited traits

Chromosome and inheritance

Introduction to Medelian genetics

Introduction to pedigrees

Molecular genetics

What is DNA Replication?

Transcription (gene expression)

Translation

Replicating the Helix - A short animation of DNA replication

DNA Replication (Advanced Detail) -  A detailed animation of DNA replication

X or Y: Does it make a difference?

Molecular basis of heredity, Nucleic Acids

Molecular basis of heredity, Genomes

Molecular basis of heredity, Genetic variation

Molecular basis of heredity, gene identification

The DNA Files - A series of 14 one-hour public radio documentaries and related information.

Understanding Gene Testing -  An informative, illustrated tutorial on genes and genetic testing. 

Epigenetics

Genetic science

Evolution:

Genetic Drift

Natural Selection

Origins of Genetic Variation

Health:

Genetic disorders

Pharmacogenomics

Family health history

Gene therapy

Fighting a contagious cancer - Ted Talks

Other:

Biology GCSE & IGCSE Question Bank 

Can Bacteria Be Designed to Create Gasoline?

Model Earth (Ecology)

Extreme Environments: Great Salt Lake

Astrobiology

The Human Microbiome 

The Science of Addiction: Genetics and the Brain

Virtual labs

Biology textbook

Biology Experiments

Where are the baby dinosaurs? - Ted Talks

Digging up dinosaurs - Ted Talks

100 Best (Free) Science Documentaries Online

More Biology documentaries and videos

Ocean wonders -Ted Talks

The sea we’ve hardly seen - Ted Talks

A census of the ocean - Ted Talks

Deep ocean mysteries and wonders - Ted Talks

The weird, wonderful world of bioluminescence - Ted Talks

Online Lessons and Guides:

Chemistry of life

Elements and atoms – elements and atoms, matter, elements and atoms, introduction to the atom, atomic number, atomic mass, and isotopes.

Electron shells and orbitals – orbitals, electronic configuration, valence electrons, groups of the periodic table, the periodic table, electron shells, and orbitals.

Chemical bonds and reactions – ionic, covalent and metallic bonds, electronegativity and bonding, intermolecular forces, chemical bonds, chemical reactions introduction and chemical reactions

Water, Acids and bases:

Hydrogen bonding in water – hydrogen bonding in water, hydrogen bonds in water, water as a solvent, solvent properties of water.

Cohesion And adhesion – capillary action and why we see a meniscus, surface tension, cohesion and adhesion in water

Temperature and state changes in water – LeBron asks why does sweating cool you down, evaporative cooling, heat of vaporisation of water and ethanol, specific heat of water, liquid water denser than ice, specific heat, heat of vaporisation, and density of water

Acids, bases and pH – autoionisation of water, Arrhenius definition of acids and bases, bronsted-Lowry definition of acits and bases, definition of pH, acids bases, pH and buffers

Cellular and molecular biology

Cells – diffusion and osmosis, nucleim membranes, ribosomes, eukaryotws and prokaryotes, endoplasmic reticulum and golgi bodies, chromosomes, chromatids, and chromatin.

Introduction to cell division - Fertilization terminology: gametes, zygotes, haploid and diploid, zygote differentiating into somatic and germ cells

Mitosis – interphase, mitosis, phases of mitosis, mitosis questions.

Meiosis – comparison of mitosis and meiosis, chromosomal crossover in meiosis 1, phases of meiosis 1, phases of meiosis 2.

Stem cells and cancer – embryonic stem cells, cancer.

Cellular respiration – ATP, ATP hydrolysis mechanism, introduction to cellular mechanism, oxidation and reduction review from biological point of view, oxidation and reduction in cellular respiration, glycolysis, krebs cycle, elctron transport chain, oxidative phosphorylation and chemiosmosis.

Photosynthesis – light reactions, photophosphorylation, calvin cycle, photorespiration, C-4 photosynthesis, cam plants

Human Biology:

Circulator and pulmonary systems – the lungs, red blood cells, circulatory system, haemoglobin.

The neuron and nervous system – neuron anatomy, sodium potassium pump, action potentials, salutatory conduction, neuronal synapses.

The kidney and nephron – kidney and nephonr, secondary active transport.

Muscles – myosin and actin, tropomyosin and troponin, role of sarcoplasmic reticulum in muscle cells, anatomy of skeletal muscle fibre.

Immunology – phagocytes, immune responses, b lymphocytes, antigen presenting cells and MHC II complexes, helper T cells, cytotoxic t cells and MHC I complexes, review of cells, inflammatory response.

Heredity and evolution

Evolution and natural selection – introduction, ape clarification, intelligent design and evolution, natural selection and the owl butterfly, variation in a spcies.

Heredity and genetics – introduction, Punnett squares, allele frequency, Hardy Weinberg equation, sex linked traits, DNA, RNA transcription and translation, alleles and genes.

Tree of life – taxonomy and the tree of life, species, bacteria, human prehistory

Crash Course

Biology and ecology – pollution, conservation, ecosystems, nitrogen cycle, history of life on earth, population growth.

(Spotlight Lessons): Ecology

Estimating Population Size – simulate mark and recapture by using small objects to trap and tag.  A simple formula will tell you what the overall population size is which can be verified by counting the objects in the bag.

Owl Pellet Dissection –  owl pellets are undigested bits of fur and bones  that owls regurgitate. Students can examine the contents, reconstruct the skeleton of the prey and make inferences about the owl’s diet.

Interpreting Ecological Data – examine charts, data tables  and graphs to answer questions about population size, growth, and carrying capacity.

Biome Project – as a group, investigate a biome and present to the class the main features, animal and plant species present and general climate.

Isopod Behavior Lab – collect isopods (pillbugs) and design a chamber to test their response to different environments, such as temperature, moisture, and substrate.