Music and Quantum Physics

This is by far the coolest musical thing I've seen since Pi Day (post including video of a musical representation of Pi).  And this is so much more epic, because it's hard core science!

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By the way, I don't understand any of this, but the song is wicked awesome. Some day perhaps I'll have a handle on Physics, but it is not this day. Please share this video, it's great and I hope it goes viral!

Neuroglia

Neuroglia are support cells for the neurons in the nervous system.  They have a very wide variety of functions, and I'm sure it hasn't all been discovered.

Now, here's the interesting thing.  Studies done on (supposedly) Einstein's brain, show that he didn't really have any greater number of neurons, but actually had more neuroglia, particularly astrocytes, which were concentrated in the area of the brain involved in imagery and complex thinking (NPR news article on the subject, June 2010).

Picture source

My thought is that we don't know which came first - the astrocytes or his genius.  Perhaps using your brain well leads to making more astrocytes in order to support how much you're using certain areas of the brain, rather than the astrocytes coming first and giving natural intellectual ability.

So, on that note, we'll take a look at these cells. :)  Here is a good way to categorize them, from interactive-biology.com.  I'll expound on these more.

Source (interactive-biology.com)

 And for the visual folks out there, here are a couple of diagrams.

Source

Source

Neuroglia in the Central Nervous System 

Source

Oligodendrocytes (a type of macroglia)

• Support neurons in the CNS by myelinating.  Have multiple "arms" with which they myelinate several axons.
• Myelination insulates axons of neurons which allows their conduction to go much more quickly.  (For some info on how this works, go to this post on action potentials and scroll to the bottom for "saltatory conduction".)
• Similar function in PNS is performed by Schwann cells

Astrocytes (a type of macroglia)

• Named for their star appearance (astro = star, cyte=cell)
• Maintain neuronal environment
• Part of the blood-brain barrier
• Control what substances are transported from blood to neural tissue (Source article)
• Have their own signalling system and can regulate messages of neurons
• Topic of much research - some are calling these "the other brain" (Source article)

  

  Source

  
  

My note on Astrocytes: wow, these look like such an exciting topic right now!  These are the cells that Einstein's brain had more of, and it looks like we are just discovering how integral they really are to the function of neurons!

Microglia

• Immune cells of the CNS - these bad boys take care of infection by foreign pathogens, and keep any abnormal neurons in check, gobbling up anything that shouldn't be there.  In short, they are the macrophages of the brain and spinal cord.
• Named for being small (micro), which allows them to get around to whatever small spaces necessary for fighting infection.

Source

Ependymal glia

Source on brainyinfo.com

• Ciliated epithelial tissue
• Line the ventricles and choroid plexus of the brain
• Make Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
• (Very good source article on brainyinfo)

Neuroglia of the Peripheral Nervous System
Schwann Cells/ Neurolemmocytes

Source

• Schwann cells have the same function in the PNS that Oligodendrocytes have in the CNS, namely myelination.
• The cell wraps itself around the axon of a neuron, insulating it, as seen below.  Pretty cool, eh?

Source on brainyinfo.com

Satellite Cells

• Cushion neurons
• Help control the environment of neurons and maintain synaptic integrity by insulating areas where there shouldn't be additional synapses on the neuron.

Einstein and Pie - I mean Pi

Today is a very special day for two reasons - Albert Einstein, and Pi!
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879.

And today's date is the first three digits of Pi -  3.14 which are pretty much the only digits the typical person knows.  Pi is an irrational number, so the digits are infinite and non-repeating.

The best Pi ever... today I'm going to listen to this song, eat a piece of pie, and solve the area of a circle all at the same time. ;)

My favorite Einstein quotes:
"The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them."

"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and  knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods."

"The only source of knowledge is experience."

"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"

Lastly, my personal and blog motto:

Videos for Einstein's Theory of Relativity

Happy Pi Day - go eat some pie!