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Calcite alabaster from the mediaeval period came from Nottingham UK or Bueda Spain; the first source is exhausted, the second damaged by dynamite mining. The extraordinary ivory-like translucence and the ability to hold detail is what distinguishes this remarkable material, exemplified in thousands of examples. View in LinkedIn

CALCIUM MEMORY TRACES. "Specifically, intracellular Ca ([Ca2+]i) signals are known to regulate a large variety of functions in all biological organisms, including memory processing and formation of memory imprints of past events ranging from minutes to generations through gene expression." https://lnkd.in/dH68RKn View in LinkedIn

MEMORY ANALOGUES. "Plants may lack brains and neural tissues but they do possess a sophisticated Ca-signalling network in their cells similar to those underlying memory processes in animals." https://lnkd.in/dH68RKn View in LinkedIn

RESISTANCE TO NEW IDEAS. "Gagliano said that her mimosa paper had been rejected by ten journals: “None of the reviewers had problems with the data.” Instead, they balked at the language she used to describe the data." https://lnkd.in/dvFaNgd View in LinkedIn

SOME MOLECULAR MECHANISMS. "Interestingly, the physiological and cellular mechanisms of leaf movements associated with fast responses to environmental stimuli in plants like Mimosa have been known for some time, revealing that these plants employ sensory and motor pathways with the direct involvement of voltage-gated ion channels, neurotransmitters and changes in protein synthesis, all of which may also be utilized during the learning process." https://lnkd.in/dH68RKn View in LinkedIn

MECHANISM INCOGNITO. "In this study, we have demonstrated the acquisition and expression of a long-lasting memory for a learned behaviour in this plant, but we have left unanswered the fundamental question of the mechanisms underlying this deceptively simple form of learning, the biological basis of which we still do not fully understand in any organism." https://lnkd.in/dH68RKn View in LinkedIn

PAST PERSISTENCE. "Mimosa can acquire an enduring memory of a past event, whereby the plant recognizes and generalizes the learned stimulus even when the context in which the memory was generated has changed. In other words, Mimosa’s proficiency in responding appropriately to a known stimulus within a new context does not require brand-new learning but the capacity to ‘remember’ (i.e. recognize that a present cue has been previously encountered) and adjust slightly." https://lnkd.in/dH68RKn View in LinkedIn

MIMOSA DURABLE MEMORY. "Gagliano reported that she retested her plants after a week and found that they continued to disregard the drop stimulus, indicating that they “remembered” what they had learned. Even after twenty-eight days, the lesson had not been forgotten. In similar experiments with bees, the insects forgot what they had learned after just forty-eight hours." https://lnkd.in/dvFaNgd View in LinkedIn

Famous mediaeval English alabaster: Resurrection of Christ, panel from an altarpiece set, 1450–90, with remains of the paint https://lnkd.in/dk9dSm3 View in LinkedIn

Strange stone mound near Girona cathedral: no marker or explanation; was it a burial site, or what explanation exists? View in LinkedIn