Andres Bendesky

@bendeskylab.com

1175 Followers 432 Following

Neuroscience – behavior – genetics – evolution Columbia University

Pair of California mice taking care of their pups
Sexual sacramentalism Epiphanius claims that the Borborites were inspired by Sethianism and that elements of sexual sacramentalism formed an important role in their rituals. He asserts that the Borborites engaged in a version of the eucharist in which they would smear their hands with menstrual blood and semen and consume them as the blood and body of Christ respectively.[4] He also alleges that, whenever one of the women in their church was experiencing her monthly period, they would take her menstrual blood and everyone in the church would eat it as part of a sacred ritual.[9] The Borborites were also said to extract fetuses from pregnant women and consume them, particularly if the women accidentally became pregnant during related sexual rituals.[10] Buckley notes that this implies treatment of an aborted foetus as "strayed semen", and would serve to prevent it from developing into another body "for the archons' clutches".
Vitamin A production during betta development. From 0 to 5 dpf, maternally deposited retinal in the yolk is utilized to produce the essential metabolite retinoic acid and the visual chromophore (11-cis retinal). Once the yolk stores of retinal are depleted, developing betta transition to retinoid production through the metabolism of dietary carotenoids. From 5-15 dpf, betta convert β-carotene from rotifer feeds to retinal via the 15,15’ oxygenase activity of bco1l. From 15 dpf to adulthood, betta rely on the provitamin A ketocarotenoid content of Artemia feeds. These molecules are likely converted to β-carotene through an unknown pathway and subsequently cleaved by bco1l.
Changes in cell type composition, including cell expansions, cell losses, and novel cell gains, are associated with the evolution of specific behaviors. Figure credit: Matteo Farinella.
Julio, a chocolate-colored long-hair miniature dachshund, hiking in the Catskills.
Big rally in NYC
NIAID and NCI have granted much more money since February 1st, 2025 than other NIH institutes.
Integration of hunger and estrous state in MPOA neurons.
Francis Galton's quincunx
Kanzer Postdoctoral Fellowship details