Best of the Web- Today's Links- Getting Brain Injuries, treating them and the wonders of ice

Good morning!

I have three links for you today, as usual- the first is a news story summarising research on brain injuries that shows that protein-rich drinks can help recovery from brain injuries. I always feel very 'depressed' about [posting about] this kind of animal-experiment, which is a huge debate, all by itself. In this case, I really just want to say that the biology behind it is interesting-

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20091207/thl-protein-drink-may-aid-brain-injury-d831572.html

The second link is to a tabloid news story about what boxing and "wrestling" (WWE-style) does to the brain - the article talks about "chronic traumatic encephelopathy" and the finding of Tau proteins (associated with Alzheimer's disease) in the brain of a 33-year old wrestler-
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/wrestling/2765141/The-brain-of-ex-WWE-star-Test-resembled-an-Alzheimers-patient-according-to-new-report.html

Today's final link is more upbeat- I would like to highlight a blog with a series of pictures and an essay (for want of a better word) about some bizarre, hair-like ice formations (also known as "hair ice"). The more I learn about water and ice and their strange properties, the more impressed I am- sometimes, it seems, that the things right under our noses and all around us-like water- are just as interesting and weird as the world's more obscure and exotic substances:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2qofhD/my.ilstu.edu/~jrcarter/ice/diurnal/wood/

Ice

This blog has become a little "cutsie" and zoological of late, so I'd like to redress the balance with something more physical and geographical. This picture of ice formations in a lake in Iceland, as seen from the air is by my friend Eduardo Izquierdo

This image is from Eduardo's photostream on flickr. His excellent photostream is primarily arty, rather than zoological or scientific; you can find it here-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/odreiuqzide/3287117584/in/photostream/