mardi 16 septembre 2003

Of memory, mice and men ... and those fine Frog's legs Before a 'blogbit about memory, I've another quick private word for the Wildcat. Nobody else needs to know that the Apprentice Dragon is called Ariane, has done very well so far in her psychology exams, and was this afternoon once more showing off two of the prettiest legs I've ever seen. How she's managed to combine her studies with her new job at the surgery round the corner and keep a commendable non-artificial tan, I have yet to ask. But she knows I'm impressed by these limbs, because she now makes a habit of coming out from behind the reception desk to give me a better look. Today's skirt was real leather, but without stripes, glossy boots -- or the unmade bed. (Yes, the pic's quite uncalled for, but my "score" at Feedster took a nosedive after I stopped posting ... well, you know. Unless it goes up again, I'll have to be less PC than ever.) The AD has taken to first names and "tu-toying" me even in front of the Expert Dragon, so I guess I'll know more of her secrets soon enough... She won't have got the tan where she lives, since Ariane has the good taste also to be a resident of the XIVth, with a launch-pad not far away at all, near an excellent market and in the very street where Tony does most of his shopping. During our flirting session fixing up of a medical rendez-vous, she said: "Ooh, could you lend me that when you're done with it?" Ariane was interested -- as Tony certainly will be -- in a find explained in the latest issue of Science & Vie. A young Franco-Swiss team in Zurich has been researching an enzyme called PPI (Protein Phosphatase 1), to learn that it works, in mice anyway, as the "molecule of forgetfulness". This discovery, technically summed up at PubMed, means that where a certain Freud once saw an instinctive unconscious defensive mechanism for forgetting things, PP1 serves as a biological way of doing it, neutralising other enzymes which would normally cause changes in the synapses of our brains... I knew that they were small, those junctions between neurons called synapses (good Georgia Medical College site linked to the Human Brain Project; Neuroinformatics). But a research programme into things which make up 15 nanometres (15 billionths of a metre) still boggles my mind. How the mice felt about it isn't reported. What's most intriguing about the Zurich work is that it's complementary to the great bulk of such research, which concentrates on the mechanisms of learning and remembering rather than forgetting. The team chief, Isabelle Mansuy, tells 'Science & Vie' that to study a phosphatate seemed "'counter-intuitive'. But we chose this path nonetheless, and that's how we discovered the role of PP1." All this may seem far more abstruse than the shortness of the Apprentice Dragon's skirt, but the magazine's special feature contains much of considerable interest and relevance particularly to the many elderly people with pressing memory problems. There's no immediate hope in some other research under way at the University of Southern California. But that's where Theodore Berger, professor of biological engineering, is busy on a programme which could, a decade hence, put some of my regular science fiction food for thought directly on the plates of ethical committees. Professor Berger's own memory research has taken him and his colleagues in the direction of artificial hippocampus implants. 'Science & Vie' reckons it might be difficult to find volunteers. I'm less sure. I'll probably need one myself by then. (No disrespect was intended, in the writing of this entry, to: - the Wildcat's own wonderful legs, which just happen to be too far out of reach right now; - Ariane, who is rocketing her way towards Full Dragon status. If she wants to slap one of her Earl Grey labels on me for describing her as a frog, I'll happily take the 'T'; - the lady who got an earful when she became the fifth caller since la rentrée to try to sell me double-glazing over the 'phone, thus making me forget where I was.) 7:18:22 PM  link   your views? [] How the Wildcat quite ruined my morning Ah lordy-lord!! Là, là, là... The things I will take from the Wildcat. Not once, but twice in recent days, she's dared to 'phone me long before the 'Today' programme's over; that's to say before 10:00 am this side of the Channel, keen to take a trowel to the mental compost when I'm far from compos mentis. Were it anybody else -- and most of them have learned this the hard way -- this would almost be a capital offence, pardoned only in instances such as an inconsiderately ill-timed death, fire in the building, plague or the outbreak of war. But. Because it wasn't anybody else and since she's every bit as lovely as Julia Ormond, quite a wildcat herself in one of my very favourite films, I didn't suggest that she spend the rest of the morning with a mop and bucket. 'Sibirskij tsiryulnik,' O thief of my heart, is one the Kid and I must have seen three times on the big, big screen, all three hours of it. It's far too romantic and unrealistic for some of the critics at the iMBD, which is one of many reasons it's among my top five. The floor-scrubbing scene for the officer cadets in the twilight of imperial Russia is among the funniest I've ever seen. But in 'The Barber of Siberia' (1998) Nikita Mikhailkov "wanted to make a historical drama, an adventure film, a business thriller and a grand love story." So he told 'Studio Magazine' in the booklet the pictures come from. Oh, and the ending, darling: it's every bit as tragic as you could want. Like that best-seller you're living writing to beat even the gloomiest of French novelists! Except that it's Russian... Now I'm not sure I got the idea in the first place. But you said you wanted to pick your own plant. Well. That does make a challenging task easier. Though it's not quite what I had in mind, with a shrug of the shoulders I give you the one from the very top of your list. "Voluptuous," was that the word? This isn't a Russian cabbage, love; it came from Alabama, along with all kinds of educational vegetable information which says nowhere why I'm not supposed to eat such things any more. I hope I got it right, but when you leap into my peaceful morning with another bunch of imponderables of the 2:00 am kind, it almost mashes that pea brain of mine. Stirring the soup, I seem to recall that a "dashing" young lad came into it all somewhere too. And that, sweet hijacker, was what made me think of Mikhailkov in the first place. Something along these lines? Perhaps not as handsome -- who knows? -- but all gallantry as they can be at that age when they want to turn it on. Poor Augustine. Her alter ego must be doing her nut by now, wondering what on earth all this is about. But there's nothing like a little mystery to spice the day, is there, Natalie? And poor Oleg, not quite yet on his knees as Cadet Andrei Tolstoi before Ms Ormond. He comes to an awfully sad end, you know. Trouble is, he knows no better than to mean every word he says. Heart right out there on the sleeve, the unfortunate boy... Even the splendidly soused General Radlov (Aleksei Petrenko) can't get him out of the pickle. Hang on. That picture reminds me. Cabbage was but an adjective. I remember what you wanted now. This one is growing in fine French soil, like me. What's more, it's even got the right message for the day. Like Andrei, I think I'd have picked something more richly red myself. But this variety doesn't appear to come like that. Sometimes, you really have to make do with what you've got, n'est-ce pas? Oh. The Kid sends a kiss. Know what colour she's wearing today? Black. I don't doubt it. It scarcely shows the grease when one jumps the gun. 1:22:06 PM  link   your views? [] What's going down, Doc? 'Twas J.-C. who told me about Geekcruises, a very expensive-looking way for IT wizards to talk their heads off and relax at the same time. Probably jealousy. I'd bet he'd give most of his teeth to be on the Linux Lunacy one. But as Doc Searls tells it, with a picture to illustrate what nearly rolled him out of bed, smooth sailing it isn't. I'm struck by the notion of turning on a telly just to find out what's happening outside. 12:08:33 AM  link   your views? []

nick b. 2007 do share, don't steal, please credit under artistic licence terms; contributing friends (pix, other work) retain their rights.