LNP · Unicamp
News
Everything happening at LNP: discoveries, papers, milestones, events and curiosities about the brain.
Did you know?
Curiosities
The brain uses about 20% of the body's energy
At only 2% of body weight, the brain is one of the hungriest organs in the body — and proteins are what make the numbers add up.
20,000 genes, far more proteins
The human genome has about 20,000 protein-coding genes — yet the different protein forms we produce may exceed one million.
Nerve signals can travel faster than 100 m/s
The secret to this speed is myelin, an insulating sheath made in the brain by oligodendrocytes.
Where does the word “protein” come from?
The name was suggested in 1838 and comes from Greek: something like “of first importance”. It could not be more fitting.
A scale for molecules that earned a Nobel Prize
Mass spectrometry “weighs” molecules with incredible precision. In 2002, the scientists who found how to do this with proteins won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
How many neurons do we have? A Brazilian scientist counted
For decades it was repeated that the brain had 100 billion neurons. Neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel measured it: about 86 billion.
