Category: Uncategorized

FLAT BIG LEAVES. "The vast majority of the estimated 250 000 or so extant species of flowering plants, as well as most gymnosperms and (extinct) pteridosperms, utilize(d) a flat-bladed megaphyll with a network of veins to capture solar energy for photosynthetic carbon assimilation." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/96/3/345.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

TWO LINEAGES. "Plants evolved leaves on at least two independent occasions and the legacy of these historic evolutionary events is represented in extant floras by microphylls in lycophytes (clubmosses, spikemosses and quillworts) and megaphylls in euphyllophytes (ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms)." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/96/3/345.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend and concludes this weekend on the theme of the plant leaf. Few structures have so exemplified life on Earth, nor caused such massive changes as plant leaves, from the vast grasslands to the dense forests. And the more we learn, the more sentient and knowing image of plants have emerged, departing from a stereotype of insensate dumb vegetation. Revisit your smart planetary neighbor with fresh eyes. View in LinkedIn

RAMIREZ ON TED on his false memory implantation study. "I even see a world where editing memories is something of a reality, because we're living in a time where it's possible to pluck questions from the tree of science fiction and to ground them in experimental reality." https://lnkd.in/d9qh8PB View in LinkedIn

NOT A CARBON COPY. “Memories can be easily distorted, and a lack of relevant animal models has largely hindered our understanding of false-memory formation. We routinely use memories as guides for cognition and behaviour. Memory, however, can often be unreliable because it is not a carbon copy but rather a reconstruction of the past.” https://lnkd.in/du9NMki View in LinkedIn

NEW DATA, NEW FRAMEWORK. "Developmental genetic mechanisms underpinning aspects of stomatal and leaf formation provide additional new insight allowing progress towards a unified framework for understanding leaf evolution." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/96/3/345.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

MEDIA FRENZY. "Creating a False Memory in the Hippocampus. We created a false memory in mice by optogenetically manipulating memory engram–bearing cells in the hippocampus. Our data demonstrate that it is possible to generate an internally represented and behaviorally expressed fear memory via artificial means." (Ramirez et al.). https://lnkd.in/dJBPzNv View in LinkedIn

NEW PARADIGM. "This Botanical Briefing provides an overview of a new mechanistic explanation linking atmospheric CO2 decline with the delayed widespread appearance of megaphylls, and ideas concerning its molecular genetic basis and the resulting global environmental and evolutionary consequences." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/96/3/345.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

IMPLANTING MEMORIES. “Researchers said the ability to implant a false memory was a scientific milestone. "We would have every reason to expect this would happen in humans exactly as it happened in mice." (Ramirez et al.). https://lnkd.in/diVvWVr View in LinkedIn

THIRD SURPRISE. "Thirdly, the tiny deeply incised megaphylls of the rare early-Devonian plant Eophyllophyton bellum from Chinese rocks shows that plants had the capacity to produce a simple megaphyll. Why were plants unable to release this morphogenetic potential?" http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/96/3/345.full.pdf View in LinkedIn