Author: Science News Staff / Source: Science News
Inspired by flatworm memory experiments from the 1950s, researchers are on the hunt for the elusive engram — the physical mark that a memory leaves on the brain — Laura Sanders reported in “Somewhere in the brain is a storage device for memories” (SN: 2/3/18, p.
22).Readers flooded Science News with their thoughts and questions on the topic.
Elizabeth Elliott wondered if Alzheimer’s disease might affect how memories are stored deep in the brain.
MIT neuroscientist Susumu Tonegawa has pulled up silent engrams — memories that aren’t readily accessible — from the brains of mice with signs of Alzheimer’s disease, Sanders says. “It’s quite possible that Alzheimer’s-related memory impairments could turn out to be problems of retrieval, not storage.”
Dead stars known as pulsars (one illustrated above) emit beams of radiation that sweep past Earth at regular intervals. Those signals could allow a spacecraft to determine its location in space, like a stellar version of GPS, Emily Conover reported in “Spaceships could use blinking dead stars to chart the way” (SN: 2/3/18, p. 7). Twitter user @Scott98390 suggested a name for the potential pulsar-based navigation system — GPS: Galactic Positioning Stars.
Flatworm experiments that showed worms could retain a memory after losing and regrowing their heads reminded reader Will Juncosa of a similar science fair experiment that he and his brother attempted. “Imagine two dozen dying platyhelminthes … subjected to two dumb…
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