Gene limits learning and memory in mice. Deleting a certain gene in mice can make them smarter by unlocking a mysterious region of the brain considered to be relatively inflexible, scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have found.
Mice with a disabled RGS14 gene are able to remember objects they'd explored and learn to navigate mazes better than regular mice, suggesting that RGS14's presence limits some forms of learning and memory. The results were published online this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Since RGS14 appears to hold mice back mentally, John Hepler, PhD, professor of pharmacology at Emory University School of Medicine, says he and his colleagues have been jokingly calling it the "Homer Simpson gene. " Can explosions move faster than the speed of light? : Starts With A Bang. “Nothing travels faster than light, with the possible exception of bad news, which follows its own rules.”
-Douglas Adams Every once in a while, a star in our own galaxy can do something to surprise us. Over in the constellation of the Unicorn lived a quiet, run-of-the-mill star named V838 Monocerotis. But in early 2002, it brightened incredibly rapidly, and the before-and-after pictures were rather astonishing. Patients to be frozen into state of suspended animation for surgery.