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Scientists Write Memories Directly Into Fly Brains 137

TheClockworkSoul writes "Researchers at the University of Oxford have devised a way to write memories onto the brains of flies, revealing which brain cells are involved in making bad memories. The researchers said that in flies, just 12 brain cells were responsible for what is known as 'associative learning.' They modified these neurons by adding receptors for ATP, so that the cells activate in the presence of the chemical, but since ATP isn't usually found floating around a fly's brain, the flies generally behave just like any other fly. Most interestingly, however, is that the scientists then injected ATP into the flies' brains, in a form that was locked inside a light-sensitive chemical cage. When they shined a laser on the fly brains, the ATP was released, and the 'associative learning' cells were activated. The laser flash was paired with an odor, effectively giving the fly a memory of a bad experience with the odor that it never actually had, such that it then avoided the odor in later experiments. The researchers describe their findings in the journal Cell."
It's funny.  Laugh.

Treasured "Moon Rock" Is Petrified Wood 209


Earth's Period of Habitability Is Nearly Over 756

xp65 writes "Scientists at this year's XXVIIth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil agree that we do not yet know how ubiquitous or how fragile life is, but that: 'The Earth's period of habitability is nearly over on a cosmological timescale. In a half to one billion years the Sun will start to be too luminous and warm for water to exist in liquid form on Earth, leading to a runaway greenhouse effect in less than 2 billion years.' Other surprising claims from this conference: that the Sun may not be the ideal kind of star to nurture life, and that the Earth may not be the ideal size."

Finally, a True Green Laser 274

dusty writes "Remember those green lasers from Star Wars? Turns out that faking green lasers has been easy for years, but making true green laser diodes has been the stuff of science fiction. Until recently, that is. Now researchers from Japan have created the world's first true green laser diode. Until now, only red and blue laser diodes were available, and now with the addition of green, new TVs and projectors that are more efficient can be produced. And if you were wondering how green lasers pointers are already produced, it is a hack that involved doubling the frequency of an infrared laser. The new true green laser diodes have much higher efficiency than the current 6%, leading many to expect big time laser display breakthroughs in the near future. Ars Technica has a well-written article on this breakthrough."

Comment Re:Self Cleaning (Score 1) 388

Not really. With high power lasers you really should make sure your optics are clean. Not so much for the energy loss of the beam but for damage of the optics. Any dirt on a lens or mirror will partially reflect some light which propagates back into the lens and is eventually being focused therein. For low power lasers this is harmless but when you go to high power this little amount of light is able to form a plasma when focused and hence destroy the optics. Since they try to ignite the gasoline I assume it is a somewhat powerful laser. If it is the optics might be damaged by soot, if not the soot will just stay there and you'll have to remove it manually.

Futurama Voices Could Be Recast 260

Svippy writes "According to reports surfacing on the Internet, Futurama may be recast. The animated series is due to return next year on Comedy Central, but may not be the same as we once knew it. 'As part of the announcement, the show's producers said stars including West, Sagal and DiMaggio had all signed on to return. Turns out that wasn't true. The stars had all expressed interest in returning. But with the budget for Futurama dramatically slashed, the salary offers came in well below what the thesps were asking.' Phil LaMarr posted 20th Century Fox's request for auditions on his Facebook page. However, some are skeptical about whether it's a real casting call or purely a stunt to reduce the salaries of the voice actors."

Comment Re:Longer lifetimes is the answer (Score 1) 627

Nitpick... the time dilation for a constant relative velocity is, as the term 'relative velocity' suggests, symmetrical. People on earth see the ships clocks go slower as the crew sees the clocks on earth go slower. Both age at the same rate, that's the Twin Paradoxon of special relativity.
A constant high velocity is not the reason why this works, you have to take the acceleration into account a real ship would have to undergo.

Comment Re:Achem (Score 1) 234

I blindly assume you have not read the pdf either you have linked, or did you? No relation to thermodynamics in it.

Wrong and wrong. Did you read it? The first part is about magnetism in general which is later used to define the partition function of a paramagnet and calculate thermodynamic properties it, i.e. heat capacity or entropy.

In other words: the famous 1st, 2nd and 3rd law of thermodynamics have no relation to magnetic or electric or other fields.

You forgot the 0st law...
Anyway, the laws of thermodynamics only account for the macroscopic features of an ensemble. They define relations between these properties independently of the microscopic nature of the ensemble. But to use this on any real system the microscopic interaction has to be described to derive the first set of macroscopic properties. And this has to include the magnetic or electric forces if present.

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