Eric Hartwell's InfoWeb

Friday, April 22, 2005

Scientists figure out how caffeine keeps us awake. [via CBS News 4/21/2005] When cells in a certain part of the brain become overworked, a compound in the brain kicks in, telling them to shut down. This causes people to become drowsy and fall asleep. Alter that natural process by adding coffee or tea, and the brain compound - called adenosine - is blocked, and people stay awake. "We knew that coffee kept us awake," Dr. Greene said. "Now we know why: Coffee and tea are blocking the link between the prolonged neural activity of waking and increased levels of adenosine in cells, which is why they prevent us from getting drowsy." Press release: Overworked brains release adenosine to slow cells, trigger sleep process. Neuron article: Adenosine Mediation of Presynaptic Feedback Inhibition of Glutamate Release.

WE KNOW WHERE YOU ARE. WE ARE ALWAYS WATCHING

Berkeley Professor explains terrifying consequences for student that stole his laptop. [Boing Boing 4/21/2005; 2:52:53 PM] Mark Frauenfelder: The last few minutes of this video from a biology class at Berkeley is of professor explaining the terrifying consequences that will soon befall the student that stole his laptop. Hell, I'm 500 miles away from Berkeley and I'm scared after watching this. Here's a torrent of the pertinent part of the video (8,000 downloads so far). A transcript of Professor Rine's speech is available here. A lot of blogs have been commenting on the super-advanced anti-theft and tracking technology that Professor Rine says his stolen laptop possesses. This comic strip parody is a hilarious take on the incident.