On This Day: May 31st
Nun Nu Thanh Quang, a Buddhist monk, immolates himself at the Dieu de Pagoda in Hue, Vietnam.
Ruptured Blood Vessel
Colour-enhanced image of red blood cells leaking out of a ruptured blood vessel. This is due to a mutation in the ephrin-B2 gene that causes the blood vessels to be more fragile than normal leading to an increased rate of haemorrhaging. The fragility is due to the inadequate coverage of the vessel by smooth muscle cells. This kind of leaky blood vessel is frequently found in tumours and in certain other human diseases.Credit: Anne Weston/LRI/CRUK
(via Wellcome Images)
(via fuckyeahmedicalstuff)
(via crookedindifference)
Why your body jerks before you fall asleep
Today in “Things you’ve always wondered but never thought to ask at the right time”.
I have kicked the sheets clean off my bed before. I’ve smacked my wife in the head and I’ve sent my dog flying. All because of involuntary jerks at the brink of slumber. Scientists think it’s the result of the final moments of a battle between your sleep and waking cycles.
Deep in the core of our brain, a region called the reticular activating system controls our feeling “awake”. Elsewhere, near the point where the nerves from the eyes cross inside your head, the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus senses the cycles of light and dark and shifts our brain to a deep sleep mode.
As your waking motor system teeters on the brink of control at that point just before the VLPO takes over, WHAM, KICK whatthehell?!
Now you know. Sleep tight.
(More info at BBC - Future)
Nancy Sinatra - Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
