Over several million years, Venus Flytraps have been triggered to snap shut by flies. A new research project has shown they can also be triggered by a mouse – viz. a computer mouse [As shown in the video above]. The many and varied possibilities of creating ‘Cyborg Plants’ has been investigated by Harpreet Sareen of […]
Tag: mouse
Of Mice, Men and Scrumpox
Herpes gladiatorum is caused by a highly infectious version of the human herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and is associated with high physical-impact sports – it frequently plagues rugby players (who know it as ‘Scrumpox’), along with Judo participants and Sumo Wrestlers. For details of the latter, a paper by Fumihiko Ban, Satoe Asano, Shigeru […]
Automated Acoustic Detection of Mouse Scratching [research study]
Acoustic detection of mouse scratching has been automated at least once. This report tells about the mice involved, and about their scratching, and about the detection — done acoustically — of that scratching: “Automated Acoustic Detection of Mouse Scratching,” Peter Elliott, Max G’Sell, Lindsey M. Snyder, Sarah E. Ross, and Valérie Ventura, PLoS ONE, vol. […]
Tips for Mouse-Massage Parlor Personnel
An international team of mouse-massaging immunopharmacology researchers shares some of its secrets for massaging mice with a paintbrush or with gloved human hands, in this study: “Massage-like stroking boosts the immune system in mice,” Benjamin Major, Lorenza Rattazzi, Samuel Brod, Ivan Pilipović, Gordana Leposavić, and Fulvio D’Acquisto, Scientific Reports, vol. 5, 2015. The authors, at Queen […]
Mousetube
MouseTube is, in the words of its founders, a web application that “allows the exchange of mouse vocalisation recording files“. There are, of course, other, unrelated kinds of mouse tubes that involve song:
Printing on rodents’ tails (new patent)
“Animals have been marked for identification purposes for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.” – explains a new US patent awarded to Somark Innovations, Inc. of San Diego, California. The firm’s invention (marketed under the name Labstamp ® ) relates to the marking, for ID purposes, of animals, where the animal might be, say, a […]
Certain effects of molecularly heavy vs light bits of instant coffee…
Curious about what happens when you take instant coffee, separate it into components that have different molecular weights, and then stick those component separately into different test tubes that have rat spleen cells in them? If so, this is the study for you: “Influence of molecular weight on in vitro immunostimulatory properties of instant coffee,” Cláudia P. […]
Elvis Mouse Not Dead (never alive)
Rumours that Elvis’s DNA lives-on in a race of genetically engineered mice have been greatly exaggerated. Back in 2012 there were a flurry of mainstream (and sidestream) news items covering Koby Barhad’s project ‘All that I am‘. [Please note that some links below, from Archive.org are slow to load, but given time, they should] At […]
How to use your nose as a mouse
This technique for using one’s nose, described publicly in 2004, has yet to catch on in a major way: “Nouse ‘Use your nose as a mouse’ perceptual vision technology for hands-free games and interfaces,” Dmitry O. Gorodnichy and Gerhard Roth, Image and Vision Computing, vol. 22, no. 12, 2004, pp. 931-942. The authors write: “The […]
Experimentally kill a mouse in/for/because of the market
Economists rarely perform experiments with mice. But it does happen, as in this study: “Morals and Markets,” Armin Falk, Nora Szech [pictured here], Science, vol. 340, n. 6133, May 10, 2013, pp. 707-711. The authors, at the University of Bonn and the University of Bamberg, Germany, explain: “In the experiment, subjects decide between either saving […]