Scientists Turn Docile Mice Into Ruthless Hunters (the-scientist.com) 76
BenBoy writes: A couple of years ago, a story surfaced about smarter mice: Scientists Create Super-intelligent Mice, Discover They're Also Very Laid Back. Well, implicit challenge accepted! 2017 brings us a report from Cell, via The Scientist: "Neural circuits in the amygdala are responsible for predatory behavior in mice, according to a study published January 12 in Cell. Using optogenetics, a technique that uses light to turn neural circuits on and off, a group of researchers led by neuroscientist Ivan de Araujo of Yale University was able to turn docile mice into ruthless hunters. Earlier research revealed that the amygdala, an almond-shaped brain structure most commonly linked to fear, was active when rats were hunting and feeding. To see whether this brain region was actually controlling predatory behavior, Araujo and colleagues decided to use optogenetics to selectively activate specific neurons in mice, with light. When the researchers activated the amygdala, docile mice attacked everything from bottle caps to live insects. Even when there was no prey in sight, the mice displayed feeding behavior -- moving their jaws and lifted their paws as if holding a piece of food. Once the light was switched off, the animals went back to peacefully strolling around their cages." Nuclear death-mice are, we assume, right around the corner.
Re:You mean Nuclear Death Soldiers (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know that I want my soldiers leaving the battlefield to go look for Bambi's mother to shoot. I'd rather the concentrate on the goal of attacking and conquering our biggest foe, Canada.
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Funny, "Nuclear Death Mice" is the name of my Canadian Oom-pah punk cover band.
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as usual, see: Black Mirror
Say hello to the Jem'Hadar? (Score:5, Funny)
Looks like we aren't waiting for the Changlings to create the Jem'Hadar. A little on the small scale, but maybe they had to start somewhere?
Maybe I have been watching too much DS9?
Re:Say hello to the Jem'Hadar? (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe I have been watching too much DS9?
Have you been doing that a lot since you became very laid back?
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Maybe I have been watching too much DS9?
Have you been doing that a lot since you became very laid back?
I'll give you a nod of accomplishment with this humor. It forced a smile for more than 10 seconds. :)
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KHAAAAAANNNNNN?!!
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If you haven't seen it, you're missing out on C-/D+ movie gold.
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Have you watch more than one episode? Then yes. :)
1) Jake and Nog.
2) Wormhole aliens and the whole Prophets thing.
3) Sisko.
All of these things are bad. Granted the Dominion War series was good.
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one's Pinky and the other is the Brain (Score:5, Funny)
Killer Rabbit (Score:3)
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I didn't realize Antioch had a blanket weaving industry still.
Secretly... (Score:5, Funny)
Reavers. (Score:5, Funny)
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Yep, Reaver rats. They'll rape us to death, eat our flesh and sew our skin into their clothing. And if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order.
This is what I instantly jumped to as well. They now know how to create both extremely docile rats and reaver rats that attack anything in sight.
I for one welcome our new rodent overlords (Score:1)
Well, I'm not arguing with the little buggers anyway.
Jacob's Ladder (Score:2)
This seems like something straight out of the film Jacob's Ladder [wikipedia.org]. Scary.
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What is the big deal? (Score:1)
Can it be done the other way around? (Score:2)
If this can turn ruthless hunters into docile mice, then go through prisons and calm those guys down so they can be rehabilitated easily. When they're not thinking about who to beat up to ass rape they may actually sit down and learn something to help them when they get out.
Re:Can it be done the other way around? (Score:5, Insightful)
When they're not thinking about who to beat up to ass rape they may actually sit down and learn something to help them when they get out.
Haven't read A Clockwork Orange yet, huh?
Re: Can it be done the other way around? (Score:4, Interesting)
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I welcome our future furry little psychotic overlords.
Activating the kill switch didn't teach them to read. They won't read your comment, and eat you anyway.
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I welcome our future furry little psychotic overlords.
Activating the kill switch didn't teach them to read. They won't read your comment, and eat you anyway.
...only after I have died and they have run out of food. Or do only cats do that? Or both? Eh, let's get a grant and test.
terrified mice (Score:1)
Or any creature, arrack everything in sight. Yes this is an obvious example of the fight side of fight or flight. Kudos for showing the amygdala is still the location of this system, which has been in question since the fmri calibration issues, but as usual the article is misleading. As the mice basically became fundamentalist conservatives, terrified of anything and everything not themselves so it needs to be destroyed.
Re:Potential military applications are really scar (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd think from a military standpoint what you want is soldiers who make better battlefield decisions, not ones that engage in a stereotypical behavior regardless of circumstance.
The human brain is both massively adaptable and subject to modification by information inputs. Which means you can indoctrinate men into becoming mindless killing machines. The problem is that historically that approach doesn't seem to be effective either tactically or strategically. US Marines faced waves of suicide attackers in the Pacific theater of WW2, which must have been terrifying, but in the end worked to the US advantage.
On the other hand George Washington's great talent as a general was retreating. He could attack a much larger and better equipped army and then make his army disappear before they could react. That was terrifying in its own way, and much more miltarily effective.
Given a fight between men fighting to kill and men fighting to survive, all other things being equal I'd put my money on the men trying to survive.
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I'd think from a military standpoint what you want is soldiers who make better battlefield decisions, not ones that engage in a stereotypical behavior regardless of circumstance.
Unless of course, you have a lot more bodies to throw in to combat, like China.
Re:Potential military applications are really scar (Score:4, Insightful)
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I hear this a lot, but with the one child policy I don't think they want their one and only child killed.
Sure, most people love their children, but then you have this issue: China's biggest problem? Too many men [cnn.com]
30 million more men than women by 2020. Don't you think that's going to cause some problems?
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30 million out of 1.3 billion? That's 48.8% women, 51.2% men. The U.S. has 49.2% men, 50.8% men. So the U.S. is imbalanced almost as much percentage-wise, albeit in the opposite direction. I don't think that's a big enough gap to be a serious concern.
Re:Potential military applications are really scar (Score:4, Funny)
George Washington and his patriot army had mad ninja skillz.
They did. The old story goes that Ethan Allen was brought back to England as a prisoner in the Revolutionary War, he was housed with a English merchant who to goad the patriot put a picture of George Washington up in the outhouse. Much to the merchant's chagrin, Allen approved. "Nothing," Allen said, "will make an Englishman shit faster than the sight of George Washington."
Who Need THAAD... (Score:3)
When you have Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons?
Finally, the mystery is solved! (Score:2)
Always wondered how Oracle sales and management suits were "trained"...
THANK YOU (Score:5, Informative)
Every article running this damn thing is yellow journalism. They all say "ZOMBIE MICE" and "SUPER AGGRESSIVE". But the research clearly states that the mice do not attack each other, or lab researchers. They only "super aggressively" hunt things that could be food. So it's more like saying they are "aggressively seeking/desiring food", "or aggressively hunting food-like objects". (Hunting being a separate urge. Think how young animals play hunt.)
There's nothing in this that actually has anything to do with zombies. No "dead body coming to life." No "hyper-aggression attacking everything in sight." Just some really animals that are really hungry for a 2 AM taco bell run.
Interesting application (Score:2)
From TFA:
This team from Britain and Canada found that mutating a single gene to block the phosphodiesterase-4B (PDE4B) enzyme, which is found in many organs including the brain, made mice cleverer and at the same time less fearful.
So we have a pharmaceutical means of making people switch political parties. [I'm not saying which way. I'm not that stupid.]
How they really did it. (Score:3)
They started using Amazon's stack ranking [businessinsider.com] (a.k.a. "rank and yank") review process on them. Researchers were surprised by the resulting mouse carnage.
A Parallel in human studies? (Score:4, Insightful)
Willard, anyone? (Score:1)
tag missing (Score:2)