Thursday, October 22, 2009

Photo Booth Pranks

Light Helps Injured Mice Walk Again

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday October 21, @09:43PM
from the blinded-me-with-science dept.
Mantrid42 writes"Researchers have been able to affect the brains of lab mice using light. Working in a new field called Optogenetics ("optical stimulation plus genetic engineering"), scientists injected lab mice with genes that can stimulate or inhibit neural activity based on the color of the light they're exposed to, and can be targeted to infect only on certain cell types. Additionally, another gene has been added to make neurons glow green when firing, allowing two-way communication between a brain and a machine."