Science
WHAT IS LOVE?
Oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin- These are all chemicals which are largely found in your body when you are falling in love... Of course, when people are in love they do not think about hormones and neurotransmitters. The truth is that our perception of love is very different to the scientific aspect of it.
Hormones are a class of chemicals chemical that that are produced by glands in the ndicrine system and are released to our body affecting behaviour. Hormones flow through the blood and target specific parts of the body over a long amount of time.There are a few hormones which are found to play an important role in love, such as Adrenaline and Dopamine.
Whilst adrenaline makes you feel nervous, Dopamine is involved in desire and reward. The symptoms of it include less need for sleep or food, including increased energy. These are similar to the symptoms felt in the early stages of attraction.
Oxytocin, otherwise known as the “cuddle hormone” is extremely important in pair bonding and increasing trust between people. It is secreted by mothers during childbirth, but also when two people have physical contact with each other.
It is interesting to see how little control we have over who we are attracted to. Due to evolution, humans have evolved to be able to make their offspring survive. To achieve this, the offspring must have a large variety of genes to fight disease, therefore making their immune systems stronger.
What this tells us about attraction, is that we are more likely to pair up with a person who has significantly different genes to ours. Smell also plays an important role in finding a partner. Evidence for this is clearly shown in “the Dirty T-shirt Experiment”. (Originally by Wedekind- 1995)
[VIDEOS] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDMwpVUhxAo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-drpViV5LSw
-Kelly Samuel
Donated cells from deceased humans could help restore vision
Based on tests carried out on rats in the University College of London, stem cells from the inside of human’s eyes have restored vision to blind rats.
Researchers at UCL “believe they have regenerated the retinal ganglion cells (RGC) using human stem cells”. RGC is a type of neuron that is responsible for passing information to the brain. They extracted Muller Glia cells, which are a type of stem cells, which are used to convert into retinal ganglion cells.
This was a lab experiment aiming to develop rod photoreceptors in the lab that respond to light. These cells were injected into blind rats and electrodes were attached to the rat’s heads, indicating that their brains were responding to low levels of light. Rod photoreceptor function increased significantly. Thereby, Muller Glia cells isolated from the human retina may be refined to produce a source of rod photoreceptor pioneers for transplantation.
Human trials will begin in three years and if successful will improve the quality of life of many humans, as they would be able to move and detect objects, but wouldn’t give enough vision to read. However, there is a chance that the body could reject the donated cells, but these cells could be taken directly from the person rather than a donor. Further research is needed to check if it is an appropriate approach.
Christina Lysandrou