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ONE SMALL STEP. “The revolutionary implant, already shown to help memory encoding in rats and monkeys, is now being tested in human patients with epilepsy — an exciting first that may blow the field of memory prosthetics wide open. To get here, however, the team first had to crack the memory code.” http://singularityhub.com/2015/11/15/first-human-tests-of-memory-boosting-brain-implant-a-big-leap-forward/ View in LinkedIn

MEMORY CHIPS. “First Human Tests of Memory Boosting Brain Implant—a Big Leap Forward. Funded by DARPA, Dr. Theodore Berger, a biomedical engineer at the University of Southern California, is testing a memory-boosting implant that mimics the kind of signal processing that occurs when neurons are laying down new long-term memories.” https://lnkd.in/dmBNXWG View in LinkedIn

NECTAL BUZZ. "In addition to sugars, which constitute the principal reward in most floral nectar, many other substances are also found in nectar. Bitter substances, such as caffeine or nicotine, repel visitors at high concentrations, but at low concentrations can be attractive and indeed have beneficial effects on pollinator learning and memory for floral traits." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

CUMULATIVE IMPACT. "In some cases, small genetic changes controlling floral traits not only generate a shift in the principal pollinators that visit the flowers, but also in the unwanted visitors, such as nectar-thieving ants." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend and concludes this weekend on plant-pollinator relationships. The unforeseen consequences, metaphorically, of the methods of plant reproduction, particularly not choosing the sexual partner directly, and the consequence of a sessile lifestyle, have forced plants to have intimate relationships with vector species who are reproductive intermediaries, and to find clever ways to reward them without being preyed on by them. Despite the challenges, plants have successfully achieved sexual reproduction and vegetative reproduction together. A complicated dance. View in LinkedIn

INDEPENDENT EVOLUTION. "Originally coined to emphasize morphological differences, ‘microphyll’ and ‘megaphyll’ became synonymous with the idea that vascular plant leaves are not homologous. Although it is now accepted that leaves evolved independently in several euphyllophyte lineages, ‘megaphyll’ has grown to reflect another type of homology, that of euphyllophyte leaf precursor structures." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1360138508002987 View in LinkedIn