Pretty cool. The 3d animation has microtubules too far back; should go all the way up to meet the actin.

The 'tangles' left over are pretty fun. An interesting Alzheimer's theory is that the tangles are part of a final attempt to keep the affected cell and neighboring cells alive after severe stress (in other words, plaque buildups are not the source of Alzheimer's but tombstones left by dying cells).

This post has been removed from the Science channel by channel owner rembar. Please review the FAQ to learn about appropriate channel assignments.

Rembar thinks mercury alloy is absolutely safe, ipso facto this is not *science, even if it's published in a peer-reviewed *scientific journal and it uses the *scientific method and it comes from the *science faculty of a respectable university, because the almighty Medical Establishment is infallible and never persisted in using an incorrect treatment for hundreds of years. Leeches? Mercuric chloride for syphilis? Never happened Science is not about unanimity of opinion. It's about the method. Mercury has been known as a neurotoxin for some time. So when you look at neurons grown in vitro under a microscope, and expose some of them to a few PPM of mercury, the mercury should cause some visible difference in structure or behavior of the neurons exposed to mercury. That's a prediction. And they verified the prediction, videotaped it, and posted the video. They even identified the site where mercury binds to a neuronal protein. Should rembar have a monopoly on *science at the sift?

http://movies.commons.ucalgary.ca/mercury/

Adding video to channels (Science) - requested by jwray.

*discuss

This video is being sent to Sift Talk for discussion - discuss requested by jwray.

This time I wasn't so lazy.

There is still a debate in the scientific community regarding low level exposure to mercury and mercury compounds.

Research indicating low level mercury exposure is toxic:

Chronic low-level mercury exposure, BDNF polymorphism, and associations with cognitive and motor function.

Low Level Mercury Exposure Accelerates Lupus in Mice

Low level methylmercury exposure affects neuropsychological function in adults

Research promoting low level mercury exposure as non-toxic:

Neurobehavioral effects of dental amalgam in children: a randomized clinical trial.

Low-level chronic mercury exposure in children and adolescents: Meta-analysis

My point in linking these few references was to show that there still is a debate within the SCIENTIFIC community about the health effects of low level mercury exposure. This video was produced by scientists, who showed their methods to reach their conclusions. To say this falls outside of science is to say that the Science channel shall show NO scientific debate.

This video wasn't produced by some herbalist or holistic practitioner, but by the University of Calgary's medical faculty. I bet they'd be surprised to find that their video doesn't meet the scientific standards of a video web site.

Question for rembar: If one of the researchers who produced this video called you and asked why this doesn't belong in the Science channel, what would you say? That because the majority of scientists currently think that low level mercury exposure is safe, the debate is over? That no further research into the safety of mercury is necessary? If that's the case, are all the researchers currently investigating low level mercury exposure wasting their time?

I welcome rembar's strict adherence to guidelines but I don't get why this is not a valuable contribution to a database of knowledge to a scientific community. Whether right, or wrong, it serves as a step taken to further our understanding of what mercury can do.

alas, it's his channel and he can cry if he wants to, cry if he wants to.

As a biomedical engineering student, I'm completely baffled as to how mercury and its effects are not considered science. I just completed a report last Tuesday on the effects of mercury as an Endocrine Disrupting Chemical. Take a look here. Choose mercury under the "browse by toxicant" sidebar on the right, and it comes up with all kinds of diseases or disorders that have strong, good, or limited links to it. Mercury is strongly linked to Acute Bronchitis, seizures, and Cerebral Palsy. I'd say further studies fall under the "science" category.

As far as the Alzheimer's goes, it's not a plaque buildup. As you age, the body loses its ability to properly process beta-Amyloid proteins. They generally build up in the brain around the myelinated axons and cause signals to arrive considerably weaker than intended.

I recently learned that another one of my sifts ,that had also been removed from the *science channel, is essentially a summary of another video on a topic, that had come under heated debate about weather the subject of the video actually qualifies as *science. I concede that that video, as a summery, is too short to hold the same kind of solid scientific explanations detailed in videos on Quantum Physics or any number of wonderful TEDtalks.

However, given that videos on the studies of Drugs on Spiders, Water Balloon Motion , and how Science leads to Murder, remain in the *science channel, I fail to see how this video, relating to mercury, or the other video regarding the topic of fluoridation of humans, both topics of dental and, it seems, mental heath, do not also deserve the same respect as other *science sifts.

Invocations (science) cannot be called by notarobot because notarobot is not privileged - sorry.

so.....how long does notarobot's post have to sit here with the clock ticking unable to garner any more votes?....'cause, rembar is taking his time and this vid wants votes-why not wait till it's published and then discuss it??? The above arguments are solid, jurys' not out on exactly what mercury does, and you can be certain no one is gonna be making fillings out of it anymore-

copyright 2001-gotta be some hard science by now
*return

*return

Returning this video from Sift Talk - return requested by choggie.

we are having the same problem with this video
http://www.videosift.com/video/Mercury-vapor-from-dental-fillings
being included in the science channel

Looks like Fritz Lorsheider's lab ((former?) Professor Emeritus, U of Calgary) has been cranking these studies out since '85 (jump on pubmed.com, search 'lorsheider fl')

I think the problem that Rembar has with this lab's work is that much of it is directed at kicking out findings that support solely the anti-Silver amalgam filling groups, made more obvious by their fairly leading discussion and use of experimental designs that give results that smack of publishing bias (only submit data supporting the anti-amalgam claims). For example this study, and the 1997 study referenced, use elemental Mercury, then lead the reader to assume that a Silver/Zinc/Tin/Mercury/etc. amalgam should act just the same, which is a pretty big assumption that needs to be discussed.

In other words, I'm on the fence here; its a lab publishing decent research in peer reviewed journals, BUT they appear to be glossing over things like silver amalgams versus near-pure mercury vapors for the sake of an agenda.

I really just up-voted because I like seeing neurons.

^Maybe they DO have an agenda*, but their work is solid enough to be published in peer-reviewed science journals. At the end of the day their findings may be wrong, as has happened with many other peer-reviewed studies, but in the mean time I say if enough of their scientific peers feel that their research is worthy of publication, then that should be good enough to merit the Science channel tag at a non-peer-reviewed corner of the web called VideoSift. Peer-review requires more than one peer, of course.

*I would also find it difficult to believe that some of those who claim that low level mercury exposure is non-toxic do NOT have an agenda.

*promote

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Monday, May 5th, 2008 7:39am PDT - promote requested by kronosposeidon.

And all this time I though it was the weed that was denuding my neurofibrils. Bastards...

*edit*

I apologize. This is not the video I intended to remove.

This post has been removed from the Science channel by channel owner rembar. Please review the FAQ to learn about appropriate channel assignments.

This video is not the one I intended to remove, I removed it because I scanned the posters in the Science Channel and assumed another video ("The Truth about Fluoride") I had removed earlier by this same poster was this video. I should have taken the extra time and checked the title, and for that I apologize.

It's FL Lorscheider, btw, not Lorsheider. Bamdrew, I very much agree, Lorscheider's work is "focused", to be sure, and that is a concern, but I saw nothing in this video specifically that I took issue with.

Jwray, seriously, lol. "Rembar thinks mercury alloy is absolutely safe". Really? I said that? Quote me. Please. Either that, or you owe me an apology for putting words in my mouth for no other reason than building up a strawman to attack. That's low and outright dishonest, and I expect an apology. I'm serious. I'll accept that apology in email and comment form, thanks.

*science

Adding video to channels (Science) - requested by rembar.

Hilarious. Rembar ad homs me and compared peered reviewed scientific studies on fluoride to that of intelligent design and yet he wants an apology. Thin skin ? Looks like he can't take what he shovels out. All the same points here about mercury apply to the fluoride videos that are backed by scientific studies.

Also, I like how rembar lets in a video on fluoride (from a different user) that had the same information I've presented to him before.

way to be consistent remmy.

rembar: That's what I infer from your prior pattern of removing all videos critical of dental amalgam from the science channel (123) while drive-by linking to outdated pro-amalgam papers that say things like "no credible scientific evidence exists that indicates that exposure to mercury from dental amalgam poses a serious health risk in humans" and "No illness has ever been associated with amalgam use in patients, except for rare instances of allergies." Also, after removing the BBC documentary from the science channel you linked in that thread a denial that any european country had ever banned amalgam, contrary to the interview with the Swedish MP in said documentary, and contrary to the official government websites of Norway and Sweden, which would give anybody a reasonable suspicion that you hadn't watched the video before kicking it, which is a sign of dogmatism.

So I exaggerated with "absolutely safe", sorry. How about "rembar was very confident that amalgam is safe for almost everybody" and "rembar removed the video as soon as he saw the title"? Fair enough?

Peace.

yessir, i liked watchin' the neurons too....brain roots, I callem'-

Rembar thinks mercury alloy is absolutely safe
Rembar thinks mercury alloy is absolutely safe
Rembar thinks mercury alloy is absolutely safe
Rembar thinks mercury alloy is absolutely safe
Rembar thinks mercury alloy is absolutely safe
Rembar thinks mercury alloy is absolutely safe
Rembar thinks mercury alloy is absolutely safe!

NEENER NEENER NEEEEEEEEEENER!

Tags for this video have been changed from 'mercury, causes, brain, damage' to 'low level, mercury, exposure, brain damage, toxic, toxicity, dental, amalgam' - edited by kronosposeidon

Not science? You're all mad as hatters!

*brain

Adding video to channels (Brain) - requested by jonny.

Mercury Vapor- Hg has been added as a related post - related requested by notarobot on that post.