/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.1792374]

Optogenetics: cool / uncool? I want opinions. And pictures. Pictures of spider-man!

[Anonymous No.1792387]

cool but cruel

[Anonymous No.1792408]

[Anonymous No.1792425]

Oh come on... One reaction? This is really an upcoming field... The innovators are going to get a Nobel prize for this for sure...

Have fun raging over IQ and transhumanism.

[Anonymous No.1792440]

[Anonymous No.1792445]

>>1792440
terrible shoop is terrible.
look at the tiles to the left of her forehead.

also, sfw board. not cool dude.

[Anonymous No.1792448]

>>1792445
>implying you can do better

[Anonymous No.1792449]

>>1792408

Suppose there was a reason he was a janitor.

>>1792445

Seriously, not even the same body type.

[Anonymous No.1792450]

[Anonymous No.1792451]

>>1792448
learn what imply actually means.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_conditional

[Anonymous No.1792453]

>>1792445
if you need to point out the flaws it's not a bad shoop

[Anonymous No.1792455]

Cool, on the first thought.

Anything concerning genetics is cool.

[Anonymous No.1792461]

>>1792451
You are actually achieving new levels of butthurt as we speak. I wish you god-speed as you venture into uncharted territory.

[Anonymous No.1792468]

Cool.
>>1792425
>The innovators are going to get a Nobel prize for this for sure
This. Just wait and see.

[Anonymous No.1792478]

>>1792455
especially if it also involved neuroscience

[Anonymous No.1792484]

Someone mind explaining what I'm looking at here?

[Anonymous No.1792497]

>>1792484
a) A piece of DNA that expresses some kind of fluorescent protein is inserted in cortical cells. b) A light (laser actually) excites the fluorescent protein in cells that are active and express the protein. This allows us to image neural activity in real time and with great spatial and temporal resolution, and even with cell-type specificity

[Anonymous No.1792527]

[Anonymous No.1792555]

err... this deosn't appear to be a troll
but... this isn't new.
I do this stuff every day. it's called fluorescent imaging of proteins. your really looking at protein function and it isn't really a genetics field
however... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescent_in_situ_hybridization this is

[Anonymous No.1792588]

Hasn't this been going on for like ten years?

[Anonymous No.1792640]

>>1792555
>it's called fluorescent imaging of proteins. your really looking at protein function and it isn't really a genetics field
That's a different field.
Recent developments have made it possible to use light sensitive ion channels and selectively activating neurons. Also, you can use fluorescence resonance energy transfer to image calcium influx in cells. The idea is that the proteins emit a different wavelength when calcium is present, so after each action potential a shift in wavelength happens. Combined with genetic modification you can make cell specific expression of the fluorescent molecules or light sensitive ion channels, so you can stimulate only inter-neurons for instance and measure the effect on cortical pyramidal cells selectively.
>>1792588
No it hasn't.

[Anonymous No.1792653]

>>1792555
>it's called fluorescent imaging of proteins. your really looking at protein function and it isn't really a genetics field
That's a different field.
Recent developments have made it possible to use light sensitive ion channels to selectively activate single neurons. Also, you can use fluorescence resonance energy transfer to image calcium influx in cells. The idea is that the proteins emit a different wavelength when calcium is present, so after each action potential a shift in wavelength happens. Combined with genetic modification you can make cell specific expression of the fluorescent molecules or light sensitive ion channels, so you can stimulate only inter-neurons for instance and measure the effect on cortical pyramidal cells selectively.
>>1792588
No it hasn't.

[Anonymous No.1792662]

>>1792374
waitaminute, are you the guy that came to /sci/ a few weeks ago talking about how they were doing their undergraduate thesis on a cheap invivo way of monitoring neuronal activity?

[Anonymous No.1792692]

>>1792662
lol, no.

[Anonymous No.1792697]

>>1792692
This is actually a really, really expensive technique btw.

[Anonymous No.1792752]

[Anonymous No.1792860]

bump

[Anonymous No.1792875]

I approve of this

[Anonymous No.1792918]

[Anonymous No.1792957]

[Anonymous No.1792995]

Optogenetics is THE FUTURE.

Think of it like this: Fibre optics broadband, directly to your cortex.

While traditional optogenetics methods only allow you to inhibit or excite neurons there are also techniques which allow you to see when the neuron is active trough flouresence, voltage-sensitive flourescent proteins.

So it is actually possible, without ever touching the brain, to read and write information to it.

It is however a very new field, but let it mature some ten years in combination with miniaturization of optoelectronic circuits and it will inevitably lead to cognition enhancing brain implants, internet enabled brain implants, advanced motor control brain implants, extracortical motor/sensory organs and got knows what else.

If you ever have a chance to put money in optogenetics stocks in the coming ten years, put a few thousand dollars in it, because it could quite likely develop like google.

[Anonymous No.1792997]

Hadn't heard of it before, reading up on it on Wikipedia. Damn that sounds interesting.

[Anonymous No.1793016]

>>1792997
Special reccomendation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-photon_excitation_microscopy

[Anonymous No.1793022]

>>1792997
Of course it is interesting, especially if you have some rudimentary knowledge as to what advantage it haves over current implant technology.

It have the possibility to enable brain implants to laypersons for enhancing abilities, not just as a treatment for disease as it carries a lot less risk, the main issue right now with it is most likely the need for gene therapy to express the flourescent proteins.
But even as we speak extensive research is done in order to make gene therapy safe for humans. Once that step is completed it should be a trivial task to engineer organic, soft electronics that could be inserted trough keyhole surgery to create a brain-computer interface of unprecedented resolution.

Amusingly we'll probably see rats reciving powerful intelligence enhancing implants before we get them however, and by this i mean that we could very well see rats performing (computer mediated)calculus before we start clinical trials on humans.

[Anonymous No.1793027]

>>1793022
>But even as we speak extensive research is done in order to make gene therapy safe for humans. Once that step is completed
Let's not get ahead of ourselves. His will probably take at least 50 years.
>it should be a trivial task to engineer organic, soft electronics that could be inserted trough keyhole surgery to create a brain-computer interface of unprecedented resolution.
>trivial
Fucking no. Do you even know how big photon excitation equipment is?

>Amusingly we'll probably see rats reciving powerful intelligence enhancing implants before we get them however, and by this i mean that we could very well see rats performing (computer mediated)calculus before we start clinical trials on humans.
Now you're just talking out of your ass...

[Anonymous No.1793031]

>>1793022
>But even as we speak extensive research is done in order to make gene therapy safe for humans. Once that step is completed
Let's not get ahead of ourselves. This will probably take at least 50 years.
>it should be a trivial task to engineer organic, soft electronics that could be inserted trough keyhole surgery to create a brain-computer interface of unprecedented resolution.
>trivial
Fucking no. Do you even know how big photon excitation equipment is?

>Amusingly we'll probably see rats reciving powerful intelligence enhancing implants before we get them however, and by this i mean that we could very well see rats performing (computer mediated)calculus before we start clinical trials on humans.
Now you're just talking out of your ass...

[Anonymous No.1793037]

>>1792995
So, say someone was an interested first-time-lurker on /sci/, understands the premise of what is being said, but has an obvious vocab barrier for some of these anatomical terms...

What the fuck are extracortical motor/sensory organs?

[Anonymous No.1793040]

>>1793031
>>But even as we speak extensive research is done in order to make gene therapy safe for humans. Once that step is completed
>Let's not get ahead of ourselves. This will probably take at least 50 years.

Don't worry, I got this.

[Anonymous No.1793046]

>>1793037
Not the guy you're replying to, but it's just fancy talk for extra limbs and senses.

[Anonymous No.1793050]

>>1793040
Fuck no, Franken Fran, every time you get involved in shit everything goes to hell.

[Anonymous No.1793055]

>>1793046
Thanks. Not too hard to piece together what most of the fancy words mean, but extracortical was beyond me ; ;

[Anonymous No.1793074]

>>1793031

>Let's not get ahead of ourselves. This will probably take at least 50 years.
Yeah, like everything else we don't have right now it have to take 50 years, never mind that gene therapy have sucessfully cured diseases already, but it will nevertheless take 50 years.

>Do you even know how big photon excitation equipment is?
You don't need superfancy two-photon excitation technology, you need a directional lightosurce and a photosensor, you're not targeting a single synapse or a single protein, you're targeting a neuronal body which express a LOT of the protein.

>Now you're just talking out of your ass...
Animals, particularly lab animals enjoy acess to a vast range of procedures not certified for humans, stem cell therapy and gene therapy primarily, but it's also availible for pets, your dog/horse feeling a bit crippled, go to a vet and get stem cell therapy for it.
I don't see why there would be a differnce for this tech.

[Anonymous No.1794213]

bamp

[Anonymous No.1794368]

HEY, A GOOD THREAD ON /SCI/. I WONDER WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

OH LOOK, IT DIED. WHAT A SURPRISE.

[Anonymous No.1794373]

>>1794368
it's a shame, as soon as a decently sci-worthy thread appears all the trolls go bump up all the retarded shit religion/homework threads until the deceny is hidden under a mountain of garbage

[Anonymous No.1794918]

>>1794373
I fuckin' know, right?

That actually sounds plausible.