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June 20, 2006
"They've encased him in Carbonite. He should be quite well protected. If he survived the freezing process, that is."
A new tracer that targets CB1 receptors in the brain but does not activate them will finally allow positron imaging of the parts of the brain stimulated by cannabis and the endocannabinoids.
Other such tracers exist for a myriad of brain receptors, including ones for opiates and serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in depression. But creating an analogous molecule for cannabinoid receptors has been a challenge. Tracers are injected into a patient's bloodstream, where they travel to the brain and compete with naturally occurring chemicals for binding sites on the target receptors. But cannabinoid-like molecules are fat-soluble, meaning they're attracted to the lipid membranes of cells, and have trouble crossing the blood-brain barrier. (THC, the main active compound in marijuana, is an exception.) But Horti was able to design a molecule that could cross the blood-brain barrier and was highly specific to the CB1 receptor.
There's a SNES emulator for the DS now.
Amorphous carbonia is carbon dioxide glass.
Under extremely high pressures of up to half a million atmospheres, molecules of carbon dioxide (CO2) form a glassy crystalline solid, they found.
At present, a-CO2 is a curiosity because it cannot be tested or used outside the pressure chamber. The CO2 that in these extraordinary conditions takes up a chaotic "amorphous" structure, becoming glass, reverts to orderly molecules of CO2 under decompression.
Posted by Jon Rubin at June 20, 2006 09:25 PM
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