I smell light!!

I'm so sorry again for the extra long dry spell. Been having a buck load of drama in my life and who would want to hear about drama right?? :) It was my birthday yesterday. I'm officially nineteen now!! Yay me :) It was a horrid, horrible, horrifying, terrible, terrifying, awful birthday though :( Seriously, trust me when I say that :) You all don't want to know what happened. Not an inkling of a celebration or a joyous moment was in place. LOL. Nevermind about that already :) Hopefully everything will turn out better and not look so grim and bleak.

Well, so many things happened. But well, life sucks sometimes :) Can't be helped.


I checked the latest news in the science field and boy!! There is something really startling. No joke. You know light, it's an energy. A form of energy, particles that exist in tiny packets-photons. Light is an electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is visible to the naked eye. Well, what is so surprising and startling is that, light as we all know, is only sensed by one of our sensory organs which is our eyes. We cannot for instance, smell or hear light. But, oho!!

Harvard University's neurobiologists have created a whole new era of mice. Why era?? These little lab rats can sniff out light. Yeah you got me, SNIFF OUT LIGHT!! Imagine that. Imagine being able to sniff out a whole bunch of photons. Phew* I tell you, some things in the Science industry really create new levels and dimensions. And startling new revolutions!! The article on light sniffing mice came out on my birthday :) How wonderful!! Makes me more inspired to catch up with that far ahead dream of mine. Sigh* That has been constantly broken by people. Behind every happy mask lies a broken heart :)

Enough about that. back to photon-sniffing mice. Must be bionic, them noses :P
It seems that the group of biologists started with just a question. "What if we make a nose act like a retina??" Based on that, they did their experiments and lo and behold, VOILA!!
Mice that can smell light!! Woots* Cheers to them. It is so complex, the whole changing the systems of mice.

"Optogenetic techniques integrate light-reactive proteins into systems that usually sense inputs other than light. Murthy and his colleagues integrated these proteins, called channelrhodopsins, into the olfactory systems of mice, creating animals in which smell pathways were activated not by odors, but rather by light."-- Taken from the article.

From there, the optogenetically engineered mice were able to perceive light and channel them to the brain through their noses. Interesting huh?? LOL. What was mainly altered was the patterns of activation downstream in the olfactory bulb. Cool huh?? HOW COOL IS THAT?? *Screaming and fainting* Sorry :) Have to dramatize a bit you know ;) But seriously, COOL!!

Their work was sponsored by Harvard and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory :) Chee, that's so mind-boggling, brain worthy, gut-hoogling and soul-warming. Forgive the nonsensical words :) The brain's on a roll. Aahh, can't wait for more news :)

Ta peeps. I love you all, have loved, love, and always will love ;)

Xx, Shia.