Whitechapel - Fiction to Reality: Total Recall Sat, 18 May 2013 05:43:22 -0700 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/ Lussumo Vanilla 1.1.4 & Feed Publisher Fiction to Reality: Total Recall http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7047&Focus=195717#Comment_195717 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7047&Focus=195717#Comment_195717 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:55:25 -0700 Evan W Smith
A flash of laser light can alter the brains of fruit flies so that they learn to fear pain that they never actually felt.

Gero Miesenböck at the University of Oxford and his colleagues genetically engineered fruit flies so that a handful of their nerve cells fired when lit up with a laser.

This allowed them to write false pain "memories" into the fruit flies' brains. "These memories cause a lasting modification of the flies' behaviour," says Miesenböck

It is known that the release of dopamine by neurons in the "mushroom body" – part of the fruit fly brain – is critical to learning. But it was not known whether behaviour can be conditioned by stimulating these neurons directly, without the fly having any real experience...


Rest of the story here.

I wonder what positive technology this might lead to down the road, other than messed up vacations on Mars. Thoughts? ]]> Fiction to Reality: Total Recall http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7047&Focus=195721#Comment_195721 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7047&Focus=195721#Comment_195721 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:12:14 -0700 mybrainhurts Fiction to Reality: Total Recall http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7047&Focus=195722#Comment_195722 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7047&Focus=195722#Comment_195722 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:16:31 -0700 RenThing Fiction to Reality: Total Recall http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7047&Focus=195743#Comment_195743 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7047&Focus=195743#Comment_195743 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:39:14 -0700 Rootfireember Fiction to Reality: Total Recall http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7047&Focus=195752#Comment_195752 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7047&Focus=195752#Comment_195752 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:58:01 -0700 rickiep00h
With regard to the OP, isn't it a little like rewriting a computer program to give it the results you want? That is, they had to hack the genes of the flies to produce their outcome. The headline is pretty misleading in that respect; the laser wasn't the cause so much as the genetic manipulation. In any case, I would imagine the slippery slope to Rekall is pretty beyond genetically-engineering fruit flies to avoid a laser beam.

That's not to say the project is any less interesting, of course. I'm always a fan of lasers and genetics. And, to a lesser extent, fruit flies. ]]> Fiction to Reality: Total Recall http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7047&Focus=196987#Comment_196987 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7047&Focus=196987#Comment_196987 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:10:59 -0700 Evan W Smith
You're probably right, it's not exactly like they'll jump from flies to humans within the next few months and have an army of Wolverine-esque mercenaries running around. But apparently it's not the only research being done into creating false memories. ]]> Fiction to Reality: Total Recall http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7047&Focus=196995#Comment_196995 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7047&Focus=196995#Comment_196995 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:42:39 -0700 Cameron C. Fiction to Reality: Total Recall http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7047&Focus=197075#Comment_197075 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7047&Focus=197075#Comment_197075 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:01:10 -0700 Redwynd
Yes. ]]>