Nah Bruh. That Ain’t Happiness

This ain’t happiness. Just normal, everyday intracellular biology.

A good friend of mine (who is not prone to just sharing everything he sees, and is very thoughtful) asked me to fact check a short video last night. I have seen this video all over the internet, with people exclaiming gleefully that it is a depiction of happiness…well, happening…in the brain.

I am glad he asked me. My answer: Nah, bruh.

What the video shows below (you can see a similar video here) looks to me like kinesin ushering a vesicle on a microtubule. I thank my education as a Molecular Biology major at Hampton University for that. Once I had looked at it a few times, it all came rushing back. I was like “wait a minute, that’s intracellular”.

So, say the vesicle is transporting a vesicle full of endorphins inside the cell. This is not happiness. This is a preparation of endorphin molecules that will be released as possible analgesic (pain relief) or mediator in stress relief. It may be endorphin release as part of a complex series of functions that may be integrated by various circuits in the brain like the precuneus (medial superior-posterior parietal lobe) and inclusive of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine release.

Do you see how much pertinent information was missing, that compromised understanding of what actually occurred in the video?

But that explanation will not go viral, will it?

Why do I care? Is this being nitpicky about some benign detail? No. The reason I am writing this is because most people are not like my friend. Most folks share things right off the bat on the internet because the internet seems authoritative. Just because someone speaks authoritatively and is technologically savvy enough to create a good animation does not mean they have the knowledge you seek.

That is my point in sharing this. We have got to stop prioritizing pretty. We have to start either saying “let me check this out” or “I don’t know”. Saying “I am sharing this, and I know” just does not work. This is not some elitist attitude. It is a plea. Information is incredibly important. Misinformation causes death. We all need to just check stuff out, especially when we say it is “science”. That goes for people that do not conduct scientific inquiry for a living, and double for those of us who do.

Did you know that if I put out a document and simply stick an image of a brain on it, a significant percentage of people immediately find it more authoritative?

Further, the average person simply does not have the time to keep fact checking scientific findings or representations on the internet. So, we have to be responsible to each other. Another issue at play here is how much we trust our friends. But we have to realize that we can all be impulsive from time to time. Those who follow me know I talk a lot about Ubuntu. Consider this information and science Ubuntu. If you don’t have time to fact check it, either don’t share it or say emphatically that you aren’t sure. I am glad my friend did that.