Headless, remote-controlled flies!!!

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2-0-Sixx

2-0-Sixx

Sicc OG
#1
May 13, 2002
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#1
This is pretty fucking cool and exciting...

Now there's a headline I never expected to write. But such is the inexorable march of science that, in this issue of Cell, there's a cool study in which some Yale professors stimulated the neurons of fruit flies with laser pulses -- and were able to remotely control their behavior, like tiny robots. At one point, they removed the heads of several flies and discovered it was still possible to sufficiently stimulate the remaining neurons to induce activity. Indeed, they even managed to get the headless ones to fly -- which you can see for yourself in this video that Cell has put online. (That's a screen grab above.)



This research could help us identify brain cells identified with specific behaviors -- from schizophrenia to overeating and aggressiveness, as one of the professors told the Associated Press:

"Ultimately, that could be important to understanding human psychiatric disorders," Miesenbock said. "That's really futuristic stuff."

Yet another example of the wonderful humanitarian results that can stem from insanely creepy research. I mean, mad props to these guys, but seriously: HEADLESS FLIES? That video looks like some sort of ghastly outtake from The Ring. I am so not going to sleep tonight.


(Thanks to Andrew for this one!)
Posted by Clive Thompson at April 11, 2005 06:14 PM

http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2005/04/headless_remote.html#001187



HERE is the video
Click to expand...
 
2-0-Sixx

2-0-Sixx

Sicc OG
#4
May 13, 2002
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#4
Nah, these are the types of studies that need to be funded more often (I also highly doubt this study cost much money at all). The sooner we can advance this sort of science; the sooner people without limbs can control artificial hands, arms, legs and feet with their minds.
 
ValleyPainProduct

ValleyPainProduct

Sicc OG
#7
Mar 15, 2005
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#7
2-0-Sixx said:
Nah, these are the types of studies that need to be funded more often (I also highly doubt this study cost much money at all). The sooner we can advance this sort of science; the sooner people without limbs can control artificial hands, arms, legs and feet with their minds.
Click to expand...

id agree those are good uses for this but you know it will be used for more diabolical purposes by our own government let alone the waccos all around the rest the globe.....like they were sayin about it leadin to understandin pyschiatric disorders....im thinkin they gonna find a way to control peoples minds wit this type of technology.....or at least tweak everyones minds so that they think the same.....im surprised you of all people havent thought of this 2-0-Sixx......
 
2-0-Sixx

2-0-Sixx

Sicc OG
#8
May 13, 2002
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Seattle
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#8
^^I have thought about that comrade, and I agree to a certain extent- I think the advancement of science can be used for the wrong reasons under exploitive societies i.e. Amerika, however there still are huge benefits for the average persons. I guess it’s a double edged sword but I think it’s vital that we continue advancing science if we want to advance society in the long run. Science will still be here when Capitalism disintegrates (hopefully) and when that occurs these technological advancements will be in the hands of the people.
 
2-0-Sixx

2-0-Sixx

Sicc OG
#10
May 13, 2002
49,944
47,801
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#10
Gay flies clue to human sexuality
From correspondents in New York
June 04, 2005

ALTERING a single gene in a fruit fly can turn its sexual orientation around, causing male flies to lose interest in females, and females to display male mating rituals to other females, according to a study published in the journal Cell today.
The research, by Barry Dickson and Ebru Demir of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences into the workings of a "switch gene", looked at the scientific debate about whether genes or environment determine human sexual orientation.

Male courtship in fruit flies, or Drosophila, is an elaborate ritual and largely a fixed-action pattern easily identified by the researchers.

The male taps the female with his forelegs, sings a specific courtship song by extending and vibrating a wing, licks her genitalia, and then curls his abdomen for copulation.

Through gene splicing, they were able to swap the orientation of male and female fruit flies they studied in an observation chamber.

"Forcing female splicing in the male results in a loss of male courtship behaviour and orientation," the study said.

"More dramatically, females ... spliced in the male mode behave as if they were males: they court other females.

"A complex innate behaviour is thus specified by the action of a single gene, demonstrating that behavioural switch genes do indeed exist."

Female flies with the male version of the gene also made amorous advances toward male flies expressing female pheromones, while altered male flies were more likely to court other males.

"We have been able to reverse the sex roles during Drosophila courtship," the scientists said.

The researchers said so-called "switch genes" that trigger development of an anatomical feature such as wing structure have been extensively studied, but there are few studies of switch genes that control a complex behaviour.

They have already begun work with other scientists to test for switch genes that might be linked to other behavioural patterns like aggression.
 
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