Brain position for optimism

From nature:

Neuroscientists have pinpointed the areas of the brain that help us to look on the bright side.

The group asked people to imagine positive and negative events that had either happened in the past or might happen in the future. Then, the volunteers rated their levels of optimism (as a general personality trait) using a standard psychological test.

Imagining positive events in the future was accompanied by activity in two areas of the brain that usually regulate how emotion affects memory and decisions: the amygdala, buried deep within the brain, and the front portion of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which sits just behind the eyes. Conversely, activation in both these areas dropped below average when the volunteers thought about future negative events.

The more optimistic people considered themselves to be, the greater the activity in the ACC. The results are published in Nature ².

I think being optimistic is critically important to survive. This study may help to overcome depression or pessimism in the future.

Moon light sensor

From Science:

Moonlight triggers the synchronized spawning of reef-building corals; however, the mechanism underlying detection of moonlight by these animals is largely unknown. Levy et al. (p. 467) now demonstrate the presence of ancient blue-light-sensing photoreceptors, cryptochromes, in the reef-building coral.

I think this is cool. However, how these photoreceptors distinguish sun and moon lights? Sun light must also contains blue color that the moon emits. Maybe the photoreceptors are only expressed during night.

Smoking

My dad told me he was trying to quit smoking. I really think that it is a good idea. But nature of this week said that gene expression changes would remain decades after quit smoking.

Nature:

Gene expression changes brought on by heavy smoking may persist long after the smoker has kicked the habit, researchers have found. The results could provide a molecular explanation for the continued increased risk of lung cancer and other pulmonary ailments among former smokers.

When smokers quit, their bodies gradually begin to undo the damage cigarettes have wrought. But contrary to popular belief, not all of the body's systems make a full recovery. Although the risk of heart disease, for example, eventually returns to that of a nonsmoker, the risk of getting lung cancer and emphysema — a progressive lung condition that leaves sufferers struggling for breath — remains elevated even if the patient hasn't smoked a cigarette in decades.

"You are reducing the risk of disease by quitting," says Raj Chari, a cancer biologist at the British Columbia Cancer Research Centre in Vancouver, Canada, "but it isn't going back to zero."