SimpleBiologist

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Long Covid causes brain fog, memory problems, and low energy. We still dont know exactly why this happens, but new research in @CellPress suggests it may have to do with circulating serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood, energy, and memory. And mice with inflammation in their intestines from viral RNA had lower body serotonin. The mice recovered when their sensory neurons that would usually be activated with serotonin were activated artificially. Hopefully this will lead us to possible treatments! Wong et al. Cell, 2023 (link in bio) #science #scitok #biology #longcovid

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There are a few well followed rules in biology and it is super fun when they get broken. Researchers in the UK found a single celled protist in a pond on the Oxford University campus that breaks the stop rule in the genetic language. Who knows why this protist would change the language, but it is super cool that it did! McGowan et al. PLOS Genetics, 2023. (link in bio) #science #scitok #biology #genetics

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Inspired by the east coast earthquake. Log scales are very fun but a bit confusing. Earthquake magnitude, decibels, pH, and SPF are all log scales in slightly different ways. We make things log scales to help us understand and talk about them more easily. #science #scitok #eastcoastearthquake