Nuke tests reveal brain regeneration

• Autores: Douglas Heaven
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2921, 2013, pág. 16
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Nuclear bomb tests carried out during the cold war have had an unexpected benefit. A radioactive carbon isotope expelled by the blasts has been used to date the age of adult human brain cells, providing the first definitive evidence that humans generate new brain cells throughout their lives. Jonas Frisen at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues used the carbon-14 produced by above-ground nuclear bomb tests carried out between 1945 and 1963. The amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere is mirrored in the cells at the time they are born. Using mass spectrometry equipment, the team measured the number of carbon-14 atoms trapped in cells in different brain regions and compared this to data for atmospheric levels of carbon-14. This allowed them to date the birth of a cell to within a year.