No, I Do Not Make This Stuff Up

[Guest guest]

One of my morning rituals is looking at the latest health headlines

from . Often the effect is similar to drinking coffee laced

with LSD.

This is one of those mornings:

http://tinyurl.com/3v9tn

Scientists Create Remote-Controlled Flies

Sun Apr 10, 3:55 AM ET Health - AP

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Yale University researchers say their study that

used lasers to create remote-controlled fruit flies could lead to a

better understanding of overeating and violence in humans.

Using the lasers to stimulate specific brain cells, researchers say

they were able to make the flies jump, walk, flap their wings and

fly.

Even headless flies took flight when researchers stimulated the

correct neurons, according to the study, published in the April 7

issue of the journal Cell.

Scientists say the study could ultimately help identify the cells

associated with psychiatric disorders, overeating and

aggressiveness. Biologists have long known that an electrical

stimulus can trigger muscle response, but this approach used focused

beams of light to stimulate neurons that would have been impossible

to study using electrodes.

Gero Miesenbock, associate professor of cell biology at Yale, said

if the process could be duplicated on mice, researchers might be

able to better understand the cellular activity that leads to

certain behavior.

" Ultimately, that could be important to understanding human

psychiatric disorders, " Miesenbock said. " That's really futuristic

stuff. "