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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."
I once saw a fly racing competition where the contestants must get their flies to weave through a course.
They used water pistols filled with fruit juice. Flies' response time was slow but accuracy was extremely high.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
I wonder what the benefits of artificially overcoming anger and over eating are. These mental functions generally have root causes. To use a form of mind control to subdue those thoughts will be temporary and will make our society dependent on brain lasers to cure our problems. The solution should come from confronting the causes in our personal lives. However, using the lasers to make animals dance could have benefits for all. Flea circus indeed!
This is my last post.
[6th Estate]
"Ever notice how there is never a clock visable in a department store?"
Heh. To be fair, they'd have to go out of their way to install clocks.
"Derp de derp."
There's a lot of other places you can see this.
I saw a thing on Discovery Channel (I think) that talked about fast food places and what they did to try to get you to buy more and stay in the restaurant for less time.
As to eating more, ever hear of MSG? They call it a "flavor enhancer" but what it really does is make you want to eat more of whatever it's in. KFC was the worst offender in this--their chicken was drenched in the stuff. It's been known for a while that it excites neurons in the brain and is believed by a lot of people to be very unhealthy (like fried chicken is healthy, but wtf).
Also, restaurants don't like it when customers hang out longer than necessary, so they shape their tables/booths to be uncomfortable as well as choose aggravating colors. McDonald's used to use bright yellow and red colors because these were unpleasant to see and made you want to leave sooner (this show claimed anyway). Temperatures were also chosen to be colder in the dining area and warmer in the ordering are (if possible).
I would imagine that any way a company can influence a consumer to their advantage, as long as it's subtle, cheap, and easy they will do it in a heartbeat. This isn't paranoia talking, it's a model of corporate survival in a capitalist environment. It's not really that bad I guess, unless it gets out of hand and becomes potentially dangerous or truly unethical.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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Somehow, I think the power of a laser to overcome the opacity of the skull, skin, hair, etc., in order to trigger central brain ganglia is probably more than enough to blow the head up.
Microwaves will probably be the mechanism to do this in mammals.
Of course, they're using magnetic field modulation to do deep brain stimulation in severely depressed individuals to evoke the same responses as ECT w/o the negative side effects, not the least is the temporary personality wipeout and desire for Spud Beer.
If you can make a fly hop etc, it isn't too far to making soldiers do stuff, or shooting an enemy with a dart and taking control of their body (eg. make them surrender etc).
Engineering is the art of compromise.
whilst true that high levels of glutamite can cause neuron death due to excitotoxicity, the brain does have defenses against it (in fact when glutamite levels shoot up high, the brain releases an NMDA-antagonist similar to ketamine, to protect against excitotoxicity).
Glutamite is also coverted in the brain to GABA, another amino acid which acts as a primary inhibitory neurotransmitter, which counters glutamite and other excitory neurotransmitters. So it really isn't so cut and dry.
-2A
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia