Word: braine
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...factotum in the Kremlin in 1997, and in the Federal Security Service (FSB) as Putin became its director in 1998. When Putin became acting President, he named Sechin deputy chief of staff. "Sechin is not just Putin's sounding board," says the cabinet official. "Sechin is part of his brain cells." Sechin's appointment, critics say, is another step in the redistribution of power and wealth from the Yeltsin-era "Family" - the oligarchs of the 1990s - to the Siloviki élite. If they're right, the next step will be a Rosneft victory in the race to snap up Yukos...
...When olfactory cells regenerate, they grow long neural shoots called axons, which connect to the brain. The axons are like phone wires that carry the signals that allow the brain to differentiate between various smells. They transport these signals with the help of olfactory ensheathing glia (OEG) cells. Because axons extend from all nerve cells, scientists have long wondered what would happen if OEG cells were taken from the olfactory bulb and introduced somewhere else?say, in the spinal cord of someone like Nan Davis...
...waiting for more research, Huang is branching out. Eighteen months ago he began performing the surgery on patients suffering from the degenerative disease ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS kills most victims within five years. By transplanting OEG cells to just below the cortex of the brain and in the spine, Huang claims to have slowed the progress of the disease in "several" of his 40 patients, and offers video evidence of one who regained the ability to walk. Another patient, Chicago-based playwright Ben Byer, was diagnosed with ALS in 2002 and underwent surgery by Huang...
Doctors still don't know what exactly causes schizophrenia, a devastating mental illness characterized by extremely disordered thinking. They're pretty sure that some kind of genetic predisposition is at work. But they also suspect that environmental triggers--particularly at critical moments during the brain's development before birth--play a role. That's why the results of a study published last week in the Archives of General Psychiatry are so intriguing. For the first time, researchers have direct evidence that exposure to influenza in utero is tied to a greater likelihood that an individual will someday develop schizophrenia...
...would exposure to influenza during pregnancy increase the risk of schizophrenia? No one knows. Perhaps the infection somehow damages the developing brain. Or the reason may have something to do with how influenza affects the mother's lungs, decreasing the amount of oxygen that can get to the fetus. But even if the link is real, it would account for just 14% of schizophrenia cases...