Word: miceli
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...even if Doogie isn't the Einstein of the order Rodentia, as some headline writers have portrayed him, most psychologists and neurobiologists are convinced that its memory and learning ability have indeed been enhanced. That has important implications. It suggests that even though the gulf between mice and men is continent-wide, this sort of research may eventually lead to practical medical results for humans, such as therapies to treat learning and memory disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, a condition likely to afflict more and more people in an increasingly aging population. In fact, the Princeton scientists are talking...
...less active in adults (who aren't), and is found mostly in the forebrain and hippocampus (where explicit, long-term memories are formed). The researchers spliced the gene that creates NR2B into the DNA of ordinary mouse embryos to create the strain they called Doogie. Then they ran the mice through a series of standardized tests--sort of a rodent sat. In one, the mice were given a paw shock while in a box; after a few rounds, they showed signs of fear from just being in the box, having learned that a shock was likely to follow. They learned...
...altered mice grow up looking and acting just like ordinary mice, with no evidence of seizures or convulsions, according to Tsien. That's critical. The NMDA receptor shows up throughout the brain, and though calcium is crucial to learning and memory, too much of it can lead to cell death. That's what happens during a stroke: when brain cells are deprived of oxygen, they release huge amounts of glutamate, which overstimulates nearby NMDA receptors and kills their host cells. Nature may have designed NR2B-based receptors to taper off in adult brains for a reason. Some scientists fear that...
...just the rich and powerful who have advocates in Congress. So do the small and wiggly, including mice, frogs, lizards, fish and hamsters. And they need them, with products like "crush" videos showing up on the Internet. The videos, which sell for up to $100, show small animals being stomped to death, usually by women wearing high-heeled shoes and boots. Although there are laws against animal cruelty, prosecutors have had trouble winning cases because most of the films don't show the stompers' faces. They also have to prove that the films were made within a three-year statute...
Build a better mousetrap and the world beats a path to your door. Build a better mouse and suddenly you're not worrying about putting the kids through Harvard. Or, in this case, Princeton, where a team of researchers have modified a single gene to produce smarter mice. According to a study to be published in Thursday's edition of Nature, mice whose brains were made to produce more of the protein NR2B became more adept at those traditional benchmarks of rodent intelligence, recognizing previously encountered Lego blocks and realizing when they are about to get an electric shock...