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The Queen's Hamlet

The Queen’s Hamlet is a charming attraction in the park of the Palace of Versailles, built for Marie Antoinette in the 18th century. It consists of a group of rustic cottages and farm buildings, arranged around an artificial lake, that served as a place of leisure and education for the queen and her children. The hamlet was inspired by the naturalistic movement in art and architecture, and by the model farms that were popular among the French aristocracy at the time. The hamlet was also a way for Marie Antoinette to escape the formalities and pressures of the court life, and to enjoy a simpler and more intimate lifestyle. The hamlet was designed by Richard Mique and Hubert Robert, who also modified the landscape of the Petit Trianon, where the hamlet is located. The hamlet has three distinct areas: the reception area, where the queen entertained her guests in the boudoir, the billiard room, and the Queen’s House; the farm area, where the animals and crops were raised and the dair
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Adult Brains


A study of brains aged between 43 and 87 suggests we may continue to make new brain cells throughout our lives. The finding could mean that adult brains are more capable of recovering from damage than we thought.

Although many of our tissues and organs renew themselves throughout our lives, it is thought that neurogenesis - the growth of new neurons - rarely occurs in adults. Now María Llorens-Martín at the Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Centre in Spain and her colleagues have studied brain tissue samples from 13 deceased adults, looking for signs of new brain cells.

New neurons are made in the hippocampus - a region of the brain key to learning and memory - and as they mature from young to old, they make certain proteins. To identify these new cells, the team used four types of antibodies to detect these proteins and found that they were all drawn to thousands of neurons across the samples.

When the team examined the cells making these proteins, they found a variety of neuron shapes and sizes. Llorens-Martín says this indicates these neurons are in the process of maturing and therefore suggests they were made later in life.

"There is neurogenesis in older brains, and it is important for forming new memories," says Llorens-Martin. "Even people in their 90s have to store new memories every day, so I'm not surprised we found this."
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