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Scientists Turn Docile Mice Into Ruthless Hunters (the-scientist.com)
BenBoy writes: A couple of years ago, a story surfaced about smarter mice: Scientists Create Super-intelligent Mice, Discover They're Also Very Laid Back. Well, implicit challenge accepted! 2017 brings us a report from Cell, via The Scientist: "Neural circuits in the amygdala are responsible for predatory behavior in mice, according to a study published January 12 in Cell. Using optogenetics, a technique that uses light to turn neural circuits on and off, a group of researchers led by neuroscientist Ivan de Araujo of Yale University was able to turn docile mice into ruthless hunters. Earlier research revealed that the amygdala, an almond-shaped brain structure most commonly linked to fear, was active when rats were hunting and feeding. To see whether this brain region was actually controlling predatory behavior, Araujo and colleagues decided to use optogenetics to selectively activate specific neurons in mice, with light. When the researchers activated the amygdala, docile mice attacked everything from bottle caps to live insects. Even when there was no prey in sight, the mice displayed feeding behavior -- moving their jaws and lifted their paws as if holding a piece of food. Once the light was switched off, the animals went back to peacefully strolling around their cages." Nuclear death-mice are, we assume, right around the corner.
Sign up for the military, have implant for perfect soldiers.
Looks like we aren't waiting for the Changlings to create the Jem'Hadar. A little on the small scale, but maybe they had to start somewhere?
Maybe I have been watching too much DS9?
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Even when there was no prey in sight, the mice displayed feeding behavior -- moving their jaws and lifted their paws as if holding a piece of food.
Humans behave like that when exposed to bubble gum. It's a feeding frenzy.
See? Monty Python's Killer Rabbit was no joke. And it turns out you did not need the Holy Hand Grenade either. Just putting a blanket over it would have done the trick also.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
Every time pull up slashdot, although I emphasize to other people the educational value, deep down I want to see some totally cyberpunk horror sounding headlines. Thanks for that.
Good. Butcher's Nails became a reality!
Yep, Reaver rats. They'll rape us to death, eat our flesh and sew our skin into their clothing. And if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order.
Well, I'm not arguing with the little buggers anyway.
This seems like something straight out of the film Jacob's Ladder. Scary.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
nothing to see here, move along
The Beastmaster did this 35 years ago: http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0083...
If this can turn ruthless hunters into docile mice, then go through prisons and calm those guys down so they can be rehabilitated easily. When they're not thinking about who to beat up to ass rape they may actually sit down and learn something to help them when they get out.
"Everybody's naked underneath" -- The Doctor
I welcome our future furry little psychotic overlords.
Or any creature, arrack everything in sight. Yes this is an obvious example of the fight side of fight or flight. Kudos for showing the amygdala is still the location of this system, which has been in question since the fmri calibration issues, but as usual the article is misleading. As the mice basically became fundamentalist conservatives, terrified of anything and everything not themselves so it needs to be destroyed.
cease fire stand down.. the missing monkey hymens will never be found? in the moms we trust.. sing along.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-kA3UtBj4M
I am sure that some war mongering #ssholes in places like North Korea just had a sudden brain wave. Problem is they would have to contract Samsung to create the wifi controlled implants for the generals to turn on and off their army of zombies. I am old enough remember when a mass of Chinese zombie soldiers attacked the Canadians it was almost as if they were unaware of what was actually happening to them as 28 Canadians held off over a thousand insanely brave Chinese.
Where have all the flowers gone? Does no one here quite realize the real potential to abuse these findings? Or are the current crowd of technically literate children here on Slashdot blinded to what this means. Come on this is a fucking dangerous discovery that could be perverted into human weaponry the likes of which was only possible before with the social indoctrination of dictators like Hitler or Mao Zedong!
People laugh when I say I'm preparing for the incoming zombie apocalypse. This right here is a scientific proof that a viral or some other kind of biological weapon could be mishandled and effectively cause all those movies and games to become a reality.
Laugh it up, Miller, laugh it up.
When you have Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons?
Always wondered how Oracle sales and management suits were "trained"...
Who should all be put to death for this so-called science which is nothing more than a violation of nature.
Every article running this damn thing is yellow journalism. They all say "ZOMBIE MICE" and "SUPER AGGRESSIVE". But the research clearly states that the mice do not attack each other, or lab researchers. They only "super aggressively" hunt things that could be food. So it's more like saying they are "aggressively seeking/desiring food", "or aggressively hunting food-like objects". (Hunting being a separate urge. Think how young animals play hunt.)
There's nothing in this that actually has anything to do with zombies. No "dead body coming to life." No "hyper-aggression attacking everything in sight." Just some really animals that are really hungry for a 2 AM taco bell run.
I'd think from a military standpoint what you want is soldiers who make better battlefield decisions, not ones that engage in a stereotypical behavior regardless of circumstance.
The human brain is both massively adaptable and subject to modification by information inputs. Which means you can indoctrinate men into becoming mindless killing machines. The problem is that historically that approach doesn't seem to be effective either tactically or strategically. US Marines faced waves of suicide attackers in the Pacific theater of WW2, which must have been terrifying, but in the end worked to the US advantage.
On the other hand George Washington's great talent as a general was retreating. He could attack a much larger and better equipped army and then make his army disappear before they could react. That was terrifying in its own way, and much more miltarily effective.
Given a fight between men fighting to kill and men fighting to survive, all other things being equal I'd put my money on the men trying to survive.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I'd think from a military standpoint what you want is soldiers who make better battlefield decisions, not ones that engage in a stereotypical behavior regardless of circumstance.
Unless of course, you have a lot more bodies to throw in to combat, like China.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
And this is how skaven come into existence...
I hear this a lot, but with the one child policy I don't think they want their one and only child killed.
From TFA:
This team from Britain and Canada found that mutating a single gene to block the phosphodiesterase-4B (PDE4B) enzyme, which is found in many organs including the brain, made mice cleverer and at the same time less fearful.
So we have a pharmaceutical means of making people switch political parties. [I'm not saying which way. I'm not that stupid.]
Have gnu, will travel.
The predatory mice in the study ended up banging repeatedly on the lab equipment repeating: "Make it stop", "Make it stop", "Make it stop".
Why do I get flashbacks to a giant magnet picking up a top secret Russian base at the south pole, when I read this story?
(Despicable Me 2 reference for those uninitiated)
El-Macho lives!
They started using Amazon's stack ranking (a.k.a. "rank and yank") review process on them. Researchers were surprised by the resulting mouse carnage.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
A decade ago I watched a TV jail series segment that happened to have a psychologist who took many years studying the reason for murdering. He talked to the inmates at length, and it also included medical studies of the brain. His findings concluded that the only difference between a mass murderer and a risk taking hero, is what they decide to do with their under-sized, or non-functional amygdala. Both are fearless in whatever they do.. I personally seem to find a use for fear; it makes us think twice before we do something irrational - Example: Hurt someone or even kill ourselves.
We just need the theme song from "Ben" to start playing...
Much like in the US, the children dying for Chinse military interests are not those of the leadership. Ask Trump and his FIVE deferments fir a bad foot. When questioned, he couldn't even remember which foot his dad paid off the doctor to say was the bad one.
I hear this a lot, but with the one child policy I don't think they want their one and only child killed.
Sure, most people love their children, but then you have this issue: China's biggest problem? Too many men
30 million more men than women by 2020. Don't you think that's going to cause some problems?
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
George Washington and his patriot army had mad ninja skillz.
30 million out of 1.3 billion? That's 48.8% women, 51.2% men. The U.S. has 49.2% men, 50.8% men. So the U.S. is imbalanced almost as much percentage-wise, albeit in the opposite direction. I don't think that's a big enough gap to be a serious concern.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
I miss the "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" tag on this one
The U.S. has 49.2% men, 50.8% men.
Once again, the only solution is to choose to be gay. Don't listen to the propaganda, it is perfectly possible for most people, who are bisexual, to choose a gay lifestyle.
Voila, problem solved, in a particularly enjoyable way!
George Washington and his patriot army had mad ninja skillz.
They did. The old story goes that Ethan Allen was brought back to England as a prisoner in the Revolutionary War, he was housed with a English merchant who to goad the patriot put a picture of George Washington up in the outhouse. Much to the merchant's chagrin, Allen approved. "Nothing," Allen said, "will make an Englishman shit faster than the sight of George Washington."
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I'd think from a military standpoint what you want is soldiers who make better battlefield decisions, not ones that engage in a stereotypical behavior regardless of circumstance.
Given a fight between men fighting to kill and men fighting to survive, all other things being equal I'd put my money on the men trying to survive.
OP here. True, I have to agree completely and thanks for the great analysis.
However what we tend to forget sometimes is that the perversion of a defensive reaction to create zombie like aggressive reactions in soldiers is also a well known military goal of the US. I am not that high on what happened to the non democratic aspects of governance of the US after the Korean conflict. For instance the military intelligence community, who then became the CIA post WW11 started to experiment on people to achieve essentially the same effects with drugs. LSD being the first and as a Canadian I am ashamed to say we helped them. What occurred, just prior to the Vietnam conflict, was an indication of exactly how corrupt the core military leadership of the US was becoming. Essentially we caved in and allowed CIA sponsored doctors to do chemical mind altering experiments on our civilians. A little known fact of history, but a tale that needs to be put into perspective when considering the US to be the only true and pure democratic light of freedom in the world!