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Aussie Scientists Discover Brain-Healing Mechanism
MQBS writes "Researchers at the University of Queensland have discovered a way to make the brain heal itself. The article is a bit light on detail but it looks fairly important (at least to the unknowledgable about advanced neuroscience (like me)). I like the part about incrased memory... anyone care to be a complete GNU/Linux source code concordance ^_^?"
Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
this is big news folks... isolating a particular type of stem cell is approaching the level of finding a holy grail. while differentiation, the process by which stem cells (which can become theoretically any type of cell) actually become a differentiated cell-type (eg a muscle cell, or an adipocyte, a fat cell) is poorly understood, isolating (and then being able to maintain and grow) a neural stem cell line is a big step (well, it was when i was doing my undergrad circa 5 years ago..).
go the green and gold.
Immediately think of Deep Blue Sea???
:)
Otherwise, this is very kewl.
Lets just hope they don't start doing experiments on genetically altered sharks
...that human beings broke the 640Kb memory barrier...
hopefully, you'll someday be able to pick up 2x256Mb BRIMMs (BRain-Inserted Memory Modules) to increase your small and outdated BRAM (BRAin Memory).
We really don't need increased memory, we need increased working memory to hold more that 5-10 activation patterns or concepts in our head at a time. Why?
There is no know limit to the amount of information that the brain can encode in long term memory since the brain is a distributed system (one neuron doesn't correspond to one item, it's only a component in a vector) and since the brain has 10^12 neurons with and avg of 10,000 connection each.
Adding cells is the trivial solution.
We could take invitro ones and put them in your head 75+ years ago if we wanted.
Hooking them up to do something useful would be the problem since everyone's head is already wired differently and we really would not know how to signal the new neurons to form new connections without messing the old connections up.
By the way, we need to give up the new addage that learning/ encoding new memories should be fast like in the Matrix. Learning is slow on purpose. If you are interested read Kandel and Schwart (2000). It's only 1414 pages.
You know the Microsoft destroys the night, Linux devides the day...
You're obviously a troll (and not a very intelligent one at that), but I'll reply anyway. Christians have no problem with stem cell research. What they object to is using the corpses of murdered children to obtain stem cells. They have no problem whatsoever with using adult stem cells (like the kind referred to in this article -- you'll notice it refers to stem cells that are already in the brain). And if adult stem cells prove inadequate, fetal stem cells can be obtained from placentas, which are much more plentiful than dead babies and don't require infanticide to obtain.
I can think of quite a lot of politicians who could benefit from brain regeneration. (Maybe it's the air in Washington...?)
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are not necessarily my own, as I've not yet had my medication today.
A bit light on detail, I suppose, is a nice way saying there is _no_ detail. Stem cell "contamination" in tissue from alternate sources (e.g., blood) is not uncommon, and would suggest that one must show that the cells are indeed neural stem cells and not of another known type. I also find it curious that the linked article is directed to discovery.com, while a peek at the current online issue of Nature Neuroscience doesn't mention this "breakthrough" at all.
I think the term you are looking for is CAM: Content Adressable Memory.
... caches). The HBSS currently solves this via an external hierarchy: HBSS -> PDA -> Computer -> Internet -> HyperInteligentSecretAlienOverseers (Ooops that was supposed to be secret .. oh well ;).
It is used commonly to implement things like caches and switches/routers. CAM tends to have scalability issues, as you pointed out. This scalability is usually salved via a hierarchy (cf L1, L2, L3
Now the idea of adding another level of heirarchy(in the form of some extra GreyMatter) closer to the existing HBSS would definately improve throughput and decrease latencies (cf cpus w/ on die cache tend to perform better).
Thoughts on tech, Software Engineering, and stuff
... but I'm still waiting for a hangover cure that works.
What do we have to do to convince people to start concentrating on important medical research?
People couldn't type. We realized: Death would eventually take care of this.
It would be nice to think that we could be directly plugged into a phone or a tv or a computer without the (sometimes) inconvenience of our eyes and ears. Or that we could, a la the matrix have information downloaded into our personal cranial RAM available for instant access.
...Stuff that Grey Matters?
Murphy was an optimist.
Sorry this isn't Microsoft 451 (the number of times windows crashes and burns) Bill isn't driving around setting your OSS on fire.... well not that we're supposed to know about.
We don't need people walking around with programs in their memories
--- As to make my comment seem, by comparison, more intelegent... doodie doodie doodie poop poop poop!