Why Do Mammalian and Reptilian Eardrums Look the Same?

Image by Bogdanov of Wikipedia From an evolutionary standpoint, reptiles/birds and mammals are as different as one can get among vertebrate animals. Given just how different the two animal classifications are, it is strange why the eardrums look SO similar. So similar that there has been a debate whether the ear in reptiles/birds and mammals evolved from a common ancestor OR... did the ear evolve independently to a similar appearing structure. Based on Japanese research , the argument is…

6/29/2015 0

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Permanent Hearing Loss From Noise May Depend on Time of Day!

Research out of Sweden have discovered that noise-induced hearing loss sustained at night is more likely to become permanent than if it occurred during the day... at least in mice. Apparently, there are certain genes found to cycle in the cochlea of mice in a pattern that followed the hours of the day. By measuring the auditory nerve activity, they found that mice exposed to moderate noise levels during the night suffered from permanent hearing loss while mice exposed to similar noise leve…

3/07/2014 0

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Opera Music Improves Heart Transplant Survival

Sara Maines of The MaineStudio Not kidding... This research  was actually published in the Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery in 2012. I should add that the research was done in mice rather than humans and won the 2013 Ig Prize in Medicine. To quote from the abstract : "recipients of a B6 cardiac graft that were exposed to opera music and Mozart had significantly prolonged allograft [transplant] survival... whereas those exposed to a single sound frequency (100, 500, 1000, 5000, 10,…

9/14/2013 0

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Men's Ability to Taste Linked to Fertility?

Image by  צביה   from Wikipedia Researchers found that two proteins that govern the ability to taste sweet and savory profoundly influenced sperm development. This surprising connection between taste and male fertility occurred when the gene encoding the taste receptor proteins TAS1R3 (part of savory taste receptor) and GNAT3 (converts oral taste signal to a nerve signal) were modified in mice allowing for selective knockout with the drug clofibrate. When these genetically modified mic…

7/03/2013 0

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New Cartilage Can be Grown From Stem Cells Found in Adult Ears

Cartilage is found throughout the body giving shape to noses and ears and cushion for the joints. However when damaged, is not easily replaced which is why synthetic materials is often used to replace damaged cartilage. However, Japanese scientists have grown new cartilage using stem cells found in the ear of all places. Specifically, the perichondrium which lines the cartilage of the ear. Perichondrium is also the layer under which a hematoma develops after ear trauma (ie wrestling) that …

8/14/2011 0

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