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Snails On Methamphetamine
sciencehabit writes "Science answers the question: What happens when you put a snail on speed? From the article: 'The results suggest that meth improves memory, something that has been previously observed in creatures with large, complex brains like rats and humans. But since the snails store their memories in a simple, three-neuron network, the team hopes that studying the meth effect in these gastropods will help pinpoint how the drug's memory magnification powers work.'"
Three neurons for a memory. Sounds like the congress.
I think it would take someone who is quite familiar with drugs to ask a question like "What happens when you put a snail on speed".
And I don't mean someone like a pharmacist.
I think your giving Congress 2 neuron's too many.
Here you go snail. One for you. One for me.
What happens when you put a greyhound on qualudes?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
is the way I first read this and talk about an excuse for meth users! But I came to my senses and was reminded that we can often extract potentially "good" byproducts from destructive ones. Look for new over the counter drugs promising to improve your memory soon.
L'esperienza de questa dolce vita (The experience of this sweet life) - Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
Maybe this bit of science doesn't have much practical usage just yet, but maybe they could somehow exploit the improved memories of these snails on meth to prevent dups right here on Slashdot.
-- Knowledge shared is power lost. -- Aleister Crowley
This is what happens when you put scientists on pot.
scientist1: "DUDE!!! what would happen if we took a snail, (pause) and gave him speed?"
scientist2: "PHHAAAA HAHAHAHAHA, lets' get to the lab!!"
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
I can imagine these are the same folks who thought it was "BRILLIANT!" to blow smoke in their dog's face with a one hitter. However the "On meth it does" ads will get much more amusing. "A snail doing 60mph down the highway isn't normal. But on meth it is..."
All joking aside, being no biologist I do wonder about the validity of such experiments. Anyone able to educate me on how they think that the effects on so different a neuron network will yield important information about how humans store / process memories? Are our brains THAT similar to ones found in a snail? Congress not withstanding, of course.
Surprising. I would have thought that a story about snails on speed would have a "Look at that S-Car Go" comment by now.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
...if after prolonged use we can expect the snails to get meth mouth.
I'm bored, let's fuck some animals up. I'm sure we can disguise it as science somehow.
Sadistic asshats...
I was thinking it was another rapid application deployment method.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc
"Common sense will be the death of us all"
Guys, seriously, the cadence worked for Ruby on Rails, and the silly reference might have worked for Python on Planes if they went through with it, but you're going to have to come up with a better name than Snails on Methamphetamine if you ever want to make COBOL a "cool" programming language.
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
Researchers recently clocked a meth snail traveling at 60 mph. After which the snail consumed a box of Twinkies.
"Snails on Speed" is a card in the game Munchkin. Life imitates art.
Well, if she has Alzheimers, why not giver her meth, her face may breakout with sores, but at least she will be able to remember who vistited her in the old folks home.
Old people on Meth, Not Even Once, unless they don't remember that once.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
Once again science has put some poor animal out of a job. The snailski's were great spokes family for high speed internet. Now what?...
Maybe I just don't know enough about the biology and mentality of snails, or even the psycological effects of meth... but did they really come to the most logical conclusion here?
Maybe the snails that were submerged in the meth-water just remembered: "hey, last time i was in this situation, i got a wicked-high! Tube down! Tube down!" Whereas the normal-water snails were like "suffocation? Eff that noise."
Karma: NaN
Where's my revision timetable, Lister? It's Saturday night. No one works Saturday night. You don't work any night. You don't work any day. 'Skive hard play hard' that's our motto. Lister where'd you put my revision timetable? It's Saturday night. No one works Saturday night. You don't work any...
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
If you want "pharm-grade" you can get a script for "Desoxyn", that's the brand name for methamphetamine. Like you said, they give it to narcoleptics mostly now, they used to give it to ADHD types more but due to the media hype not very many doctors will go near it anymore. Which is really stupid if you think about it, if someone wanted meth to get high they can easily purchase it for much cheaper and with less hassle than the legal drug dealers offer.
Personally, I've never touched the stuff. But I do take lisdexamfetamine, aka Vyvanse. It's essentially just dextroamphetamine that's been hacked in a way that makes your body process it differently. Unlike other amphetamines you don't really get "high" from it, and you barely "crash". You can't snort it, I don't think you can smoke it either. You take a pill or three and gradually over the next hour you feel increasingly enhanced. Instead of getting tweaked out in one big rush it eases into a heightened state of performance. After a few hours you notice it tapering off, about 8 hours later you are normal again. Compared to straight d-amphetamine or Adderall (mixed dextro- and levo-amphetamines) you barely feel any side effects. At least I barely do. My appetite isn't killed entirely, I don't feel jittery. My mouth gets dry, but not nearly as dry. My ability to get an erection is impacted, but not nearly as severely, it's still very possible. Which is good because the only side effect that seems more severe than with other amphetamines is a boosted sex drive. It's made a bit weird too, I'm not a kinky guy really but I am open minded. For some reason lisdexamfetamine makes me a lot more enthusiastic about going there.
TFA screwed up the link to the original journal article
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/213/12/i
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
So, they trained snails to stop using built-in survival mechanisms and then gave them drugs that prevented the snails from going back into survival mode. Seems to me like they're not improving memory but are instead prohibiting instinct.
http://www.bynarystudio.com
Invertebrate rights now! Just say no to escargot!
They're like saute'd squid, as long as you purged their intestines with a week-diet of celery and cabbage.
Now, what do snails on Meth taste like? Sounds like something easier to sell on the streets.
I was diagnosed with ADHD (inattentive subtype) a few years ago. I'm in my mid-30's and honestly, until my diagnosis & treatment, I've always struggled. I started out on Strattera and it eventually just stopped working. I've been on Adderall for a year now; thankfully I'm on a comparatively low dose, but I have my concerns regarding the addictiveness of the drug. If scientists can use this research to more better understand the mechanism of how the chemical works, perhaps it will reveal a potential treatment without the risk of taking potentially habit-forming drugs.
This experiment is interesting, but it doesn't test memory. Memory is a cognitive ability to consciously recall facts - an ability I doubt many people would claim that snails have. This experiment simply shows that meth increases the result of pavlovian conditioning.
As far as I know, Thalidomide is or at least was recently still in use in Southamerica. Mainly against leprosy. In Great Britain it's used in cancer treatment sometimes. Especially in Brazil, with a higher rate of analphabetism they have a hard time to prevent people from taking it when pregnant. http://abvtenglish.wordpress.com/what-is-thalidomide/
Slimy business, to say the least.
What did they expect, to get the snails to focus more? ... to do what?
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