Medical research

New method visualizes groups of neurons as they compute

Using a fluorescent probe that lights up when brain cells are electrically active, MIT and Boston University researchers have shown that they can image the activity of many neurons at once, in the brains of mice.

Neuroscience

Calcium is key to age-related memory loss

Research at the University of Leicester is offering new clues into how and why cognitive functions such as memory and learning become impaired with age. A paper published recently in a specialist neuroscience journal shows ...

Neuroscience

Neuroscientists now can read the mind of a fly

Northwestern University neuroscientists now can read the mind of a fly. They have developed a clever new tool that lights up active conversations between neurons during a behavior or sensory experience, such as smelling a ...

Neuroscience

'VIP' treatment for jet lag

A small molecule called VIP, known to synchronize time-keeping neurons in the brain's biological clock, has the startling effect of desynchronizing them at higher dosages, says a research team at Washington University in ...

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Fluorescence

Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation of a different wavelength. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore lower energy, than the absorbed radiation. However, when the absorbed electromagnetic radiation is intense, it is possible for one electron to absorb two photons; this two-photon absorption can lead to emission of radiation having a shorter wavelength than the absorbed radiation.

The most striking examples of fluorescence occur when the absorbed radiation is in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum, and thus invisible to the human eye, and the emitted light is in the visible region.

Fluorescence has many practical applications, including mineralogy, gemology, chemical sensors (fluorescence spectroscopy), fluorescent labelling, dyes, biological detectors, and, most commonly, fluorescent lamps.

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