Month: October 2020

320 ka behavior leap

10s of collaborators at institutions worldwide worked to analyze the environmental record they had obtained, which is now the most precisely dated African environmental record of the past 1 ma. early humans at Olorgesailie relied on the same tools, stone handaxes, for 700 ka. Their way of life during this period was remarkably stable, with no major changes in their behaviors and strategies for survival. Then, beginning around 320 ka ago, people living there entered the Middle Stone Age, crafting smaller, more sophisticated weapons, including projectiles. At the same time, they began to trade resources with distant groups and to use coloring materials, suggesting symbolic communication.

Merge the court

I. Merge the Federal Appeals Court into Supreme Court
II. Require a supermajority to strike down laws as unconstitutional
III. Eliminate fixed sizes and any notion of “vacancy”
IV. Limit the number of appointments per Presidential term to enforce near parity of influence

RNA Memory

Eventually, the worms recoiled to the light alone. Then something interesting happened when he cut the worms in half. The head of one half of the worm grew a tail and, understandably, retained the memory of its training. Surprisingly, however, the tail, which grew a head and a brain, also retained the memory of its training. If a headless worm can regrow a memory, then where is the memory stored, McConnell wondered. And, if a memory can regenerate, could he transfer it? They had transferred a memory, vaguely but surely, from one animal to another, and they had strong evidence that RNA was the memory-transferring agent. Glanzman now believes that synapses are necessary for the activation of a memory, but that the memory is encoded in the nucleus of the neuron through epigenetic changes.

Earlier research had shown that these epigenetic changes can be inherited. Perhaps phobias are epigenetic?

Memories can be passed down to later generations through genetic switches that allow offspring to inherit the experience of their ancestors.