If you've opted to go for low "mood lighting" in your office, you might want to think again. According to a new study from Michigan State University, when rats are exposed to dim lighting for prolonged periods, their brain capacity diminishes. The same could likely be true for humans.
The rodents used in the study were Nile grass rats, which are diurnal – that means they sleep at night and are active during the day.
When a group of the animals were exposed to dim light during the day for a period of four weeks, they lost about 30 percent of the capacity in their hippocampus, which is a part of the brain associated with learning and memory. They thus performed poorly on a spatial task that they had learned and performed previously.
Another group of rats had been exposed to bright light every day for four weeks, and their performance on that same task improved after that time. Additionally, the performance and brain capacity of the dim-light rats recovered fully, after they were given a break for one month and then subjected to four weeks of bright light.
It was found that sustained exposure to dim light led to a marked reduction in brain derived neurotrophic factor, which is a peptide that maintains healthy connections and neurons in the hippocampus. The dim light also caused a reduction in dendritic spines, which are the connections that allow neurons to communicate with one another.
Because light doesn't affect the hippocampus directly, the scientists believe that it must first be acting on other parts of the brain, after passing through the eyes. One area that's a possibility is a group of neurons within the hypothalamus, which produce a peptide known as orexin. That peptide, in turn, is known to influence a variety of brain functions.
Given this fact, the researchers wonder if giving orexin to the dim-light rats would have the same affect as exposing them to bright light. If it does, then it could have implications for people such as the elderly, or those who have eye problems.
"For people with eye disease who don't receive much light, can we directly manipulate this group of neurons in the brain, bypassing the eye, and provide them with the same benefits of bright light exposure?" asks Lily Yan, who worked on the project along with Antonio "Tony" Nunez and Joel Soler. "Another possibility is improving the cognitive function in the aging population and those with neurological disorders. Can we help them recover from the impairment or prevent further decline?".

Flexible batteries may not be an entirely new idea, but here's a development with more backbone than most: engineers at Columbia have developed a flexible lithium ion battery shaped much like a human spine. The battery is claimed to offer superior energy density to the flexible prototypes we've seen before.
The battery is also claimed to provide stable voltage no matter how it's twisted or contorted, positioning the technology firmly in the realm of wearable tech, not to mention portable flexible devices and displays.
It's made up of solid energy-storing components which are essentially the vertebrae of the prototype. These are composed of lithium cobaltate cathodes, graphite anodes with a separator between, along with copper and aluminum current collectors and a polyethylene supporting film.
These are separated by so-called "flexibility providers" akin to the disks and ligaments that allow your back to bend. What these are made from isn't immediately clear — apparently they're the secret sauce — so we've asked for more details.
We've seen similar technology from the likes of Panasonic (with its thin and twisty flat and flexible lithium ion batteries), the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (and its similar thin-film technology) and LG (an altogether stringier affair). But by the sounds of it, Columbia's technology may lend itself to more energy-intensive demands.