Slashdot Mirror
Remote-Controlled Flies
Rollie Hawk writes "This could be a huge development for the ultra-lazy (and ultra-stinky, for that matter). It seems that Yale scientists have managed to engineer a remote control system for flies. According to their study (recently featured in Cell), specific neurons can be stimulated by lasers to control basic functions in fruit flies such as jumping, walking, and flying.
The study, of course, was performed with wider ranging applications in mind than bringing new meaning to the saying, "Shew, fly!" The overall goal was to determine whether isolated-neuron stimulation could be used to control basic motor activities and even more complex behavior.
Everyone since the days of Mary Shelly has obviously known that there are connections between electrical current and muscle movement. What makes this study unique is that it does not use traditional electrodes, which lack the single-neuron specificity of lasers. Eventually, this could lead to mappings that will give humans knowledge and possibly control over not only complex movements but less-than desirable mental functions such as aggression and overeating."
Since the days of Galvani , the Italian experimenter for whom "galvanic" current is named. Mary Shelly's days started just about when Galvani's ended, as he died in December 1798, while she was born in August 1797. She wrote the story of "Frankenstein's monster", where dead flesh is revived by electricity, during Summer 1816.
--
make install -not war
Eh? I work at k-mart and there's plenty of clocks everywhere.
Did you get the whole oxygen thing from the casino/urban legend?
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
Also, Carl Zimmer has written an article in the NYTimes on this; here's his blog post on the topic, as well.
No, MSG is simply a "flavour enhancer" that got a bad rap in the 80s because it was over-used and some people are allergic to it. It's like salt. There are certain receptors on your tongue that pick up MSG, just like there are some that detect sweet, sour, bitter, and savoury.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
Interesting. I did a little looking and it appears that what you said is true from most perspectives.
There's still a lot of people who think otherwise though. I wonder why this is still debated a lot? What is there to gain from removing MSG as many seem to want?
The one thing about all those "pro MSG" sites was that they all refer to mono-sodium glutamate as simply "glutamate", saying it's found naturally in proteins and in out bodies. Glutamate is an essential and natural amino acid. That's fine, but is plain old "glutamate" the exact same as MSG? MSG might be based on glutamate, but chemicals can change drastically if you add or remove extra elements. Anyone know more?
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
/)
Read this and look around here
unless you grow your own food, MSG is in just about EVERYTHING you eat. It helps you to be a good consumer. good consumer. goood.
bite my glorious golden ass.
(So people don't have to dig around for it...)
Remote Control of Behavior through Genetically Targeted Photostimulation of Neurons
Susana Q. Lima and Gero Miesenböck
Optically gated ion channels were expressed in circumscribed groups of neurons in the Drosophila CNS so that broad illumination of flies evoked action potentials only in genetically designated target cells. Flies harboring the "phototriggers" in different sets of neurons responded to laser light with behaviors specific to the sites of phototrigger expression. Photostimulation of neurons in the giant fiber system elicited the characteristic escape behaviors of jumping, wing beating, and flight; photostimulation of dopaminergic neurons caused changes in locomotor activity and locomotor patterns. These responses reflected the direct optical activation of central neuronal targets rather than confounding visual input, as they persisted unabated in carriers of a mutation that eliminates phototransduction. Encodable phototriggers provide noninvasive control interfaces for studying the connectivity and dynamics of neural circuits, for assigning behavioral content to neurons and their activity patterns, and, potentially, for restoring information corrupted by injury or disease.
And with cockroaches. There is actually a company called BrainGate that is in human trial phase for a complex electrode fiber implant sheith that will go over the brains of the severly handicapped to allow them to regain fine tuned control over computer screen elements. Eventually they would like to produce "wearable robots"; essentially a hydrolic exoskeleton directly controllable via "natural" movement commands from the brain. There are also groups trying to devise means of implanting a surrogate nervous system that would stimulate the muscles and allow a severly injured individual to regain direct control over their limbs. This last bit is highly speculative, but all have been considered.
None have very much to do with this particular technology.
Amino acids have an acidic carboxylic acid group, a basic amine group, and a side chain. If the side chain is neutral, then the amino acid is pretty close to neutral, because the acid and base groups cancel each other out. Glutamic acid, however, is an acidic amino acid. When you mix it with a base, it makes a glutamate salt. In this case, the base is sodium hydroxide. If you add more base, it will become disodium glutamate, which is basic.
Having said all this, the biological effects of the salt and the acid forms are probably the same, as they would be interconverted between the different forms as the pH of their environment changes.