Atomic Bombs Help Solve Brain Mystery 59
sciencehabit writes "The mushroom clouds produced by more than 500 nuclear bomb tests during the Cold War may have had a silver lining, after all. More than 50 years later, scientists have found a way to use radioactive carbon isotopes released into the atmosphere by nuclear testing to settle a long-standing debate in neuroscience: Does the adult human brain produce new neurons? After working to hone their technique for more than a decade, the researchers report that a small region of the human brain involved in memory makes new neurons throughout our lives — a continuous process of self-renewal that may aid learning."
Neurons regenerate you say? (Score:5, Funny)
I'll drink to that!
Re:Well, one problem down. (Score:5, Funny)
Not to be confused with T Rex, in which the only winning play is not to move.
Re:This isn't a mystery (Score:5, Funny)
I was under the impression that the standard explanation was that learning and memory were based on connections, not generation of new cells.
That would strongly imply a zero sum game, which would be like, for example, learning a new programming language but in the process forgetting how to talk to wom...
Wait, you might be onto something.
Re:This isn't a mystery (Score:2, Funny)
If only the Intelligent Designer had used the waterfall method and left behind requirements specs, functional specs, architecture specs, and design specs.
Unfortunately, based on results, it seems she used agile and we get random bits of this and that from whatever hare brained idea someone came up with at each morning standup and don't even have a documentation trail to help us figure out the black box.