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Have you ever wondered what happens during an autopsy? We might think we have half an idea from crime dramas like Silent Witness‚ but what's the reality of a post-mortem?As part of the "Living Autopsy" series of lectures‚ Dr Suzy Lishman CBE‚ consultant histopathologist at Peterborough City Hospital‚ UK‚ takes us through the process of an autopsy and reveals what we don't see on TV‚ from carefully examining the different organs of the body down to filling out the paperwork – all to figure out the cause of death.Check out Dr Lishman's lecture above. If you're a bit squeamish‚ don't worry – there's no blood‚ body parts‚ or dead body. Only a live model who must have some sort of superpower in order to stay that quiet and that still for so long.Credit: The Royal College of Pathologists

Einstein’s work was crucial for the current understanding of gravitational waves and the development of stimulated radiation that culminated in the invention of lasers. Dr Jing Liu‚ from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences‚ has combined the two into an intriguing proposal: it is possible to create the gravitational equivalent of a laser.Let’s start with the basics. The word laser stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. A laser is made of light all with roughly the same frequency (or‚ in other words‚ it is monochrome) and it is coherent‚ so it can be focused to a tight spot or can be used to create ultrashort pulses. By stimulating a quantum mechanical energy transition‚ it is possible to get light out all with the same frequency.Natural lasers exist and they are called masers – with the "m" standing for microwaves. These astrophysical masers come from a bunch of sources‚ including comets‚ stellar atmosphere‚ and even the aurorae of Jupiter. So if light can make a laser‚ could gravity as well?Gravitational radiation shares similar properties with light behavior. Gravitational waves have frequencies and move at the speed of light‚ so in principle‚ you could make a laser with them. This would require a source that produces stimulated gravitational waves with a specific frequency. Anything that has mass and moves creates gravitational waves‚ but you are not getting that specific energy transition you encounter with atoms.         But maybe‚ there could be something like a gravitational atom – a structure where the gravitational interactions supersede the electromagnetic ones. The theoretical idea of a gravitational atom is recent and Liu exploited that hypothetical to test if a gravitational laser is possible. Liu’s gravitational atom is a rotating black hole surrounded by a cloud of axions‚ incredibly light hypothetical particles that are a leading candidate for dark matter.Though it is yet to be peer-reviewed‚ the work suggests that theoretically speaking‚ it is possible to generate resonant energy transition in clouds of axions. Those transitions‚ akin to an electron in an atom losing or gaining energy‚ would release gravitational waves of the same energy and direction. That would be a gravitational laser.So are we getting ready to find these gravitational lasers from these axions? Not quite yet. There are a lot of hypotheticals‚ but understanding what gravitational signals might look like is key to actually discovering them. And the laser signal would not look like anything we have encountered so far‚ so it matters to know what it is.A preprint of the study is available on ArXiv.[H/T: Live Science]

A fun question on Reddit asks "Do butterflies have any memory of being a caterpillar or are they effectively new animals?"Moths and butterflies have very unusual life cycles‚ as you likely learned from a surprising number of children's books where caterpillars are (unfairly) mocked by other insects for being ugly‚ before they retreat into a cocoon and emerge as a beautiful butterfly to the annoyance of the insect clique. Unfortunately‚ these books don't tend to go down into the nitty gritty of how this transformation takes place‚ prioritizing listing the number of blueberries the caterpillar has eaten over explaining the biological processes taking place in a cocoon. "What I learned‚" biologist Professor Martha Weiss‚ who investigated caterpillar-moth memory‚ told NPR‚ "is that the caterpillar turned to minestrone and that those ingredients that made up the caterpillar were completely reorganized into a butterfly that threw away the leftovers that it didn't need from the soup and was off."Humans generally don't have memories from the first three or four years of our lives‚ and we're willing to guess that we would remember even less if at four years old we melted down into minestrone. But‚ as Weiss discovered in a 2008 study‚ moths and butterflies can retain memories from their time as caterpillars‚ suggesting that the creatures' nervous system remains during the transformation into a butterfly. For the study‚ researchers from Georgetown University‚ including Weiss‚ released ethyl acetate into caterpillars' environment‚ a smell you probably know from nail polish remover. Caterpillars are not bothered by the smell‚ but by pairing it with mild electric shocks they were able to train the insects to be adverse to it. Sort of like how you may be "not fussed" by orange juice‚ but might actively avoid it if every time you picked up a carton you got tasered by a scientist.They then offered the caterpillars the choice of air containing ethyl acetate‚ or normal air. Seventy-eight percent of the caterpillars avoided the ethyl acetate‚ despite being unbothered by it beforehand. A month later‚ now moths‚ 77 percent of the moths chose to avoid the ethyl acetate. The moths had retained memory of their larval stage."The behavior represents true associative learning‚ not chemical legacy‚ and‚ as far as we know‚ provides the first definitive demonstration that associative memory survives metamorphosis in Lepidoptera‚" the team wrote in the study."Our behavioral results are exciting not only because they provoke new avenues of research into the fate of sensory neurons during pupation‚ but also because they challenge a broadly-held popular view of lepidopteran metamorphosis: that the caterpillar is essentially broken down entirely‚ and its components reorganized into a butterfly or moth."We now know that large sections of the nervous system are preserved during the transformation‚ allowing butterflies and moths to retain memories of their larval stage.The study is published in PLOS ONE.

Do you really know what’s going on in your mouth? The oral microbiome refers to the microorganisms living in the human oral cavity. While some of them can offer a positive or neutral benefit to human health‚ others can cause diseases within the mouth and even have a wider impact on human health beyond. We spoke to Martijn Verhulst‚ Medical Liaison Manager‚ Medical Affairs at Sunstar to find out just what it means to have a mouth full of bacteria. “The oral microbiome refers to all the microorganisms‚ their genetic information and the environment in which they interact‚ that's the mouth‚" explains Verhulst. The mouth is home to the second most diverse microbial community after the gut with more than 700 species of bacteria that live on the tissues present within‚ be that the hard surfaces of the teeth or the soft tissues of the tongue or the oral mucosa. Moreover this collection of microorganisms is unique to the individual. “Every single person also has a unique microbiome‚ the variation between people is even so distinct and so large that researchers believe that the microbiome can even be used as a unique microbial fingerprint like the ones on your hands‚” continues Verhulst.          Letting your oral hygiene slip can contribute to these bad bacteria spreading through the body with links between the microbiome and diseases like Alzheimer's‚ cardiovascular problems‚ and even arthritis. A 2017 study found links between periodontal disease and increased risk of different cancers. Keeping your mouth healthy with regular brushing and flossing can help reduce the chances of your bacteria spreading. “You need a mouth full of bacteria. However‚ the crucial part is to keep these bacteria in a healthy balance‚ and this balance is what we call symbiosis.”According to a 2016 paper‚ we are not distinct from our microbiome but together we form a "super organism"‚ with the microbiomes present both in our guts and in our mouths playing a role in those areas‚ but also in our overall health.Verhulst says‚ “In a symbiotic state‚ the microorganisms in your mouth‚ they fine tune your immune system‚ they keep your mucosa in a healthy state‚ they are involved in the digestion of food‚ and are crucial for maintaining health." Research is continually advancing in this field‚ with what Verhulst describes as a "paradigm shift" – from looking at the microbiomes individually‚ to looking at the oral microbiome as an integral part of the rest of the body and the role it has to play in different diseases. The content of this article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice‚ diagnosis‚ or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.