Backyard Brains Can Help Satisfy Your Inner Frankenstein (Video)

Did you know that cockroaches have such large nerves in their legs that you can poke into their legs almost at random and hit a nerve with an electrode so you can stimulate that leg with hip-hop music and and watch it move? And that you can easily order the parts to do this at home or at school? You can. And supplies to perform many other neuroscience experiments, too. Amaze your friends! Learn how neurons work! Gross out squeamish people! All that (and more) is what Backyard Brains is about.

Comments

That's not funny

[Gothmolly]

Sticking an electrode into a creature and have it twitching to music is not funny, it's cruel.

Re:That's not funny

[million_monkeys]

That's a pretty weak defense against a claim of cruelty. A human analogue: Suppose you need a bunch of healthy teeth for an experiment. Find a child and yank out a few teeth - they'll grow new ones eventually. Shoot them up full of Novocaine first and they won't even feel it. I assume no one thinks that's acceptable?

If you're ok with the process because it's only a cockroach, just admit that. Don't try to use some false justification to convince yourself that you were humane about cutting it's leg off.

Re:That's not funny

[codewarren]

A human analog is irrelevant. Humans are not analogous to cockroaches in this way. Humans feel pain through nociceptors. Cockroaches don't have these.

Besides that Humans can feel horror and misery that a brain as simple as a cockroaches almost certainly cannot. They do not have higher emotions and higher functions. They don't even have memory. Whatever it is like to be a cockroach, it is almost certainly nothing like what it is like to be a human.

Re:That's not funny

[Surt]

So your claim is that cockroaches are as human as Jews?

Re:That's not funny

[codewarren]

By this logic, mowing one's lawn is a virtual holocaust of cruelty.

Slashvertisement

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you know that nerds have such large deficiencies in their brains that you can post Slashdot articles almost at random so you can stimulate that advertising revenue with advertisements disguised as badly edited articles and watch them squirm? And that you can easily order the editors to do this at home or at work? You can. And supplies to perform many other psychology experiments, too. Amaze your investors! Learn how marketing works! Alienate your readers! All that (and more) is what Slashvertisement is about.

Re:Damn!

[Anonymous Coward]

We just don't have the size cockroaches you have. And using cats or dogs is often frowned upon.

So, how's monetizing Slashdot working out?

[GodfatherofSoul]

Shameless articles about torturing animals (even insects are beneath this) and astroturfing posts cheering them on. Wag of the finger, site I used to love...