[quote=Endocrinology][b]Dopamine[/b]

Dopamine (or 3,4-dihydroxyphenethylamine) is a neuroendocrine transmitter (i.e., a hormone and neurotransmitter) that plays a number of important roles in the brain and bodies of humans. Its name derives from its chemical structure: it is an amine that is formed by removing a carboxyl group from a molecule of L-DOPA.

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In the brain, dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter—a chemical released by nerve cells to send signals to other nerve cells. The brain includes several distinct dopamine systems, one of which plays a major role in reward-motivated behavior. Most types of reward increase the level of dopamine in the brain, and a variety of addictive drugs increase dopamine neuronal activity. Other brain dopamine systems are involved in motor control and in controlling the release of several other important hormones.

The ventral tegmental area (VTA) contains the largest group of dopamine neurons in the human brain. They project to numerous brain areas, but the two largest projections are the mesolimbic pathway, which targets the nucleus accumbens and other limbic structures, and the mesocortical pathway, which targets the prefrontal and insular parts of the cerebral cortex.

The VTA dopamine system is strongly associated with the reward system of the brain. Dopamine is released in areas such as the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex as a result of rewarding experiences such as food, sex, and neutral stimuli that become associated with them. The source of this dopamine is primarily the VTA, although the substantia nigra may also contribute. Electrical stimulation of the VTA or its output pathways can itself serve as a potent reward: animals will quickly learn to press a lever if it results in stimulation of dopamine release, and often will continue pressing the lever for a long time, at steadily increasing rates.[/quote]

Zachary finished reading the chapter and glanced outside, and was surprised to find that it was already approaching night. He had not brought sufficient supplies to comfortably spend the night here, so he needed to get home quickly. He quickly gathered up what he would take home and left, glancing both ways before stepping into the street and proceeding at a brisk walk. The darkness which was quickly falling was starting to out-pace the adjusting of his night-vision, but he dared not turn on a torch as that would kill his night vision and prevent him from seeing anything outside the beam of the torch.

As he precariously picked his way along the rubble-strewn streets, he spotted a small gang of people on the side of the street. Although he could make out nothing more than silhouettes, he could see them discussing quietly and looking in his direction. Zachary felt Kaa'is shift the position of the plasma rifle in his bag, and thinking that Kaa'is was going to draw it and shoot them he quickly turned his head to look at what he was doing. To Zachary's relief, the gun was still in his bag and not showing any sign of leaving. It had merely been positioned so that its profile was clearly visible to the gang. Said gang suddenly had further discussion and left quickly.

[b][i]Intimidation is easier than fighting,[/i][/b] Kaa'is commented. Zachary rolled his eyes. Kaa'is had probably made that move to intentionally scare him, more than to scare the gang.

Soon Zachary was home and he began his night-time routine. He ate dinner, brushed his teeth and then settled down to read before going to bed. Today he searched through the engineering handbooks he had to find what the two strange cores he had found were. After some searching, he found what they were. Trap cores- cores which store things in some sort of sub-dimension. From their size and purity, he determined from tables than these particular cores could contain somewhere around 200kg of matter or two cubic metres, which is a lot. He could make them work by creating a shell of Sparker metal which would project the core's power outwards in a field. There was so much he could do with these. Mainly it could let him carry around a large quantity of tools and materials in his pocket. What an exciting find! Zachary put the trap cores aside and went to bed, his mind going over what he could do with those cores until he finally drifted off to sleep.