Month: September 2022

MEMORY IMPLANT TRAILS START 2015. "Two studies funded by the U.S. military's research wing suggest that implanted electrodes could improve memory.” http://europe.newsweek.com/human-trials-begin-memory-improving-brain-implants-335978 View in LinkedIn

BLACK BOX. “Until now the only serious effort to build an implantable memory device was that of Ted Berger’s lab at USC. As we have seen, with just a limited set of electrodes in hippocampal regions and no real clue as to what kinds of codes are involved (hint: the code is there are no codes), they have their work cut out for them." (2014). https://lnkd.in/duuv7mx View in LinkedIn

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE LABS. "On the electrical end, LLNL’s new wafer technology will use fairly high electrode counts, perhaps 500-1000 spots. While higher density 11,000-electrode chips have been par for the course in single neuron analysis, these chips will have more sparsely distributed electrode locations. Integrated light guides will provide conduits for optogenetic manipulations, and as an added bonus bi-directional fluid channels for any number of chemical exchanges are also etched in. To wire everything up, new standardized multiplexed connectors are also in the works.” https://lnkd.in/duuv7mx 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

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

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

VARIABLE RESPONSES. "Different flower visitors can vary in their response thresholds for the repellent effect; for example, in Nicotiana attenuata flowers, moths responded more strongly to the presence of nicotine (repulsion) and benzyl acetone (attraction) in nectar than hummingbirds." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

BLOCKING THE BUZZ. "RNA interference on only two loci can block the production of both benzyl acetone and nicotine, resulting in fewer visits and nectar removal by pollinators, which has fitness effects (for example, altering seed set), but it also alters damage by herbivores, and nectar theft by ants." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

FLOWERS AND POLLINATOR PROCESSES. "When considering the consequences of interactions between angiosperms and their pollinators, it is vital to consider two predominant processes influencing angiosperm diversity: interspecific hybridization and polyploidy (or whole-genome multiplication." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn