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FRAGMENT FROM NATURE contemplates plant-pollinator interactions for this and next weekend. The emergence of green plants on Earth changed the world by providing an abundant food source, a habitat, and an ecosystem for nested hierarchies of diverse creatures. Key amongst these were the pollinators that co-evolved with plants, and permitted their complex reproductive cycles. This complex mutualistic co-evolution of flowering plants and pollinators has been pieced together over time and tells the story of how evolution is more about cooperation than competition. View in LinkedIn

THE TRACE. “Memory is not a carbon copy, but rather a reconstruction, of the world we've experienced.” http://io9.gizmodo.com/memory-implantation-is-now-officially-real-909746570 View in LinkedIn

PROFESSOR GRAHAM COLLINGRIDGE (also a winner of the Brain Prize) “suggests we may feel able to remove distressing memories using drugs.” https://lnkd.in/dnaUMmN View in LinkedIn

PRION-LIKE PROTEINS. “Long-term Memories Are Maintained by Prion-like Proteins. As long as these aggregates are present, Kandel says, long-term memories persist. Prion aggregates renew themselves by continually recruiting newly made soluble prions into the aggregates. "This ongoing maintenance is crucial," said Dr. Kandel. "It's how you remember, for example, your first love for the rest of your life." https://lnkd.in/dgF6U_j View in LinkedIn

THREE APPROACHES. "Genetic analyses of plant-pollinator interactions can be roughly divided into studies that document candidate genes and quantify pollinator response to manipulation, those that explore genetic pathways and mechanisms of floral traits and studies that seek to understand the evolutionary history of species interactions, such as adaptive radiations of plants and their pollinators." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

MOLECULES MORPHING INTO MEMORIES. “Efforts to discover how neurons make memories have long confronted a major roadblock: Neurons are extremely sensitive to any kind of disruption, yet only by probing their innermost workings can scientists view the molecular processes that culminate in memories.” https://lnkd.in/dcQaUQX View in LinkedIn

PHANTOM BRIDE. "The influence of pollinator choice on the evolution of various sensory cues displayed by flowers is well documented." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

BIOCHEMISTRY OF BACTERIAL MEMORIES. https://lnkd.in/d-cfkR2 View in LinkedIn

MORE QUESTIONS. "Is the independent emergence of certain floral traits in different lineages (such as in transitions from predominantly bee-pollinated ancestors to principally hummingbird-pollinated flowers) mediated typically by parallel evolution (variation in homologous genes or indeed homologous mutations) or by convergence using different molecular-genetic pathways with similar phenotypic outcome?" https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn