Some clips of Thermite from Brainiac science abuse. Thermite burns at around 4000 °F (2500 °C) and can cut just about anything. Watch it destroy anything in its path! Cool.

This little dog apparently doesn't have enough brain power to plan an escape, from the invisible forcefield which is preventing its escape Now that is some funny stuff! Enjoy!

Well, this little dog has a pretty good brain to come up with this crazy idea. What's even crazier, is the fact that it worked, and he escaped. Pretty impressive, wouldn't you say so? Enjoy!

People tend to do the strangest things when they panic. We all know this, but it's still funny to see how the brain reacts. For example, this security guard was leaving the store in such a hurry that he ignored the fact that the gates were only one-way. Watch him do a spectacular flip

"The latest in download technology and best of all, practically invisible" LOL. So funny...just watch!!! "Thanks Eye Fi"

At least that's what the evangelists say! No comment!

Lol. It looks like some people really know when they should stop. Anyway, after thrying that stunt twice, his brain came back to its senses )

You really need some brains to do this! You get two of your smartest friends to sit on a tree branch with you and then, using a saw, you cut the branch Guess they didn't hear about self preservation!

Well...it's a no-brainer that a drunk man and a water slide usually don't go well together. But, as you will see in the video nobody warned this stupid drunk guy that it's not a good idea to go head-first on what seems to be a super market water slide. All I can say is ...OUCH...

I'm all against animal cruelty and such, but sometimes, these experiments can bring forward something that would benefit millions of people. I think that one such case is this. This monkey has a microchip implanted in its brain, and linked up to a robotic arm. The amazing thing is that the monkey can control the arm like an extension of its body, with incredible precision, and without any visible effort!

A really cool technology innovation from Japan. A robotic exoskeleton, that senses the neural stimuli transmitted from the brain to the muscles and acts accordingly. The result? A robotic enhancement, that allows you to lift up to 10 times the normal weight. It can be really useful on construction sites!

In two separate experiments, scientists reach some interesting conclusions about our brain's ability to perceive time, and how and when we can modify it. Brilliant!

It's not new that the brain works in some mysterious ways, and as time passes we're getting closer and closer to understanding what makes it tick. It defines who we are, and it's what separates us from the rest of the animal world. But this "super-computer" can sometimes misfire, and make false assumptions, simply because it hasn't got enough information or because 90% of the time the respective supposition is correct!

The latest technology for the blind is tongue vision. It allows images to be displayed from a video camera sensor as electrical impulses to the tongue. It seems that the brain can adapt, and with time it can be used naturally. The only drawback is for the moment it's low resolution. Hope they fix it! Enjoy!

For the first time a gene was identified that allows the repair of damaged nerves in nematodes. The study is from Science Express. A gene that can stimulate the growth of nerve cells was first identified by researchers at the University of Utah (USA), thanks to cutting-edge experimental techniques and a huge genetic screening on a nematode (cylindrical or worm). The neurons, which in the embrio are able to regenerate, in adults have their capacity to "repair" reduced or absent. In other words, damage to the central nervous system (brain or spinal cord) and its consequences - paralysis, loss or reduction of cognitive faculties - are permanent. "In the past molecules have been identified that can inhibit the growth of neurons in different organisms," says the coordinator of research Michael Bastiani, "but their removal in the laboratory had no effect. That is why we went to look for those genes that can stimulate rather than inhibit, the regeneration of nerve. " Taking as a experimental model flat worms (Caenorhabditis elegans), biologists have searched for the genes that trigger the regrowth of motor (neurons that "command" voluntary muscles): in practice, with an experimental technique called RNA interference to "shut down ", one by one, 5000 on 20,000 genes in the DNA of worms (genes similar are also present in humans). The analysis led to the identification of dlk-1, which appears to play a key role in the regeneration of nerve tissue, and three other genes responsible for the formation of axons (parts of the neuron that conduct electrical signal). The researchers found that in nematodes, the gene dlk-1 not only triggers a chain of events known as "Map kinase" behind the growth of neurons, but also that their regeneration can be increased or decreased by stimulating the gene to produce amounts more or less high of the protein dlk-1.

The habitual consumption of alcohol reduces the size of brain mass. This suggests a study in Neurology magazine. The more we drink, the more our brains will decrease. To suggest this is a report of Wellesley College, Massachusetts, published in the journal Archives of Neurology (a publication of Jama) and this week the American Academy of Neurology. We know that the volume of the brain decreases with age (about 1.9 percent every ten years). This physiological reduction is accompanied by an increase in white matter lesions and both factors - reminiscent of the authors - are related to cognitive problems like memory. While some scholars have suggested a possible positive effect of alcohol on reducing the normal volume of brain mass, this new study suggests just the opposite. Data was collected on a sample of over 1,800 individuals aged between 55 and 64 years, most consumers of alcohol or ex-drinkers, which carried out magnetic resonance (participants in the Framingham Offspring fall Study, a study of the cardiovascular problems started in 1971, for which it was collected information on weekly consumption of alcohol, sex, body mass index and other physiological parameters). The results show that there is a significant correlation between alcohol intake and reduction of brain volume, especially in women which usually consume less alcohol than men.

Npas4: This protein regulates the formation of inhibitory synapses between neurons. The inhibitory activity of neurons is regulated by a particular switch. This is a protein involved in the formation and maintenance of synapses in regulating selectively switching the electrical signal between nerve cells. Its name is Npas4 and was discovered by researchers from the Children's Hospital in Boston this week to publish their study in Nature. In particular, the protein in question is a transcription factor, that is a molecule that can activate or deactivate specific genes. Those which would be linked to Npas4 are more than 270. When the protein is produced in large quantities, we are seeing an increase in the number of inhibitory synapses on the surface of nerve cells. But what induces the production of high levels of Npas4? According to the researchers this is a reaction to excitatory synaptic. "It is as if the same excitement triggers a program to rebalance the brain with inhibition," says Michael Greenberg, coordinator of the study, which continues: "The mice in which the protein is suppressed, in fact, have neurological problems: are anxious, hyperactive and more subject to seizures. " The discovery could help researchers in studying these disorders. Inhibition, in fact, plays an important role in brain development.

The brain responds to stimuli, tactile and visual contradiction in delaying the processing of information that comes from the skin. A fly is laying on the right elbow. Slight itching, moving vision towards the elbow, identification of the intruder and its position and, finally, blow. This reaction is not as instantaneous as you can imagine. Indeed, the brain seems to delay affixed aware of the tactile perception, as reported a study in Current Biology Group for Research in Cognitive Neuroscience (Grnc) in Barcelona. The brain is often having to generate rapid responses integrating stimuli that produce information in contradiction: if, for example, the subject has crossed his arms and brings his right arm on the left side and left arm on the right side, his hands will be in a position that is reversed from the original location. In this case, the brain must be able to correctly integrate the information of the tactile stimulus (for example pinch) on the right hand, although the visual stimulus comes in fact from the left. To avoid mistakes the brain needs time to make a realignment of the information space of two different maps: that rof the body and one that covers everything else. To understand how the mechanism works, researchers have assessed the response of 32 university students to a series of visual and tactile stimuli. Each student has been subjected to 600 tests. "First we asked participants to cross the arms, so that the position of hands was in conflict with the anatomical position" says Salvador Soto-Faraco, one of the authors of the study, "we have stimulated one of two hands." Few tenths of a second later, a small light (visual stimulus) I had left or right. Both the tactile stimuli that those visual products were in a totally random. In addition, the flash of light could be generated 60 or 200 milliseconds after the tactile stimulus. In order to assess whether the time elapsed between the two stimuli does influence or not the answer.

The ventral striatum, a part of the brain already known to be associated with rewards and unexpected stimuli, is the center of our desire for adventure. The research in Neuron. A group of researchers from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at the University College of London has identified the area of the brain directly linked to our desire for adventure. Or, more precisely, our propensity to live new experiences and to experience what we do not know. For the study, published in Neuron, researchers have developed a test: the participants were presented a series of images associated with different sums of money put into a premium, and were asked to guess which of the sums was higher. Although the volunteers easily could identify the image associated with richer rewards, when it was introduced a new figure, all of them tended to choose the latter rather than those already known with secure profits. Through magnetic resonance imaging, neuroscientists have noticed that the area of the ventral Striatum (an area of the brain already known to be associated to receive a reward and unexpected stimuli) was particularly active when participants opted for the novelty.

A newly discovered molecule, Isx-9, is able to make stem cells mature into brain cells. The study in Nature Chemical Biology They came across this behavior, while they were stimulating stem cells to give rise to cardiac cells, when researchers from the Southwestern Medical Center at the University of Texas at Dallas, have discovered that some of the molecules tested have matured however into neural cells. Completely random, therefore, this lead to the isolation of Isx-9, the most powerful among the compounds tested, capable, at very low concentrations, to create differentiated neurons. The study, conducted by researchers led by Jay Schneider and Jenny Hsieh was published on the number of Nature Chemical Biology. Scientists began testing 147 thousand molecules for the project in order to isolate those who could stimulate embryonic stem cells to differentiate into cardiac cells. Stunningly, American researchers have noted that five of these compounds caused the stem to rise to neurons. One of these molecules was selected because it was acting to lower concentrations of the other and was more soluble in water. This, has given life to the compound Isx-9 that has been tested on neural stem cells from the brain, particularly those of the hippo campus of laboratory animals. In the test tube, the stem, under the action of Isx-9, could form the clusters and develop the first steps towards the formation of neurons.