Planaria and the consumption of brains

David Duffy · 04 Nov 1999, 07:27 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: David Duffy <davidD at qimr.edu.au>
Subject: (urth) Planaria and the consumption of brains
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 17:27:59 +1000 (EST)
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You shouldn't be completely dismissive of this.  It was replicated up as
high as cats (trooly rooly), but the effects were never really big. Just
recently they've found there are a few hundred new neurons appearing in
the human brain every day (maybe via the diet;)): it's been suggested
they might represent laying down of new memories. So it can definitely be
used as a scientific fiction to explain how eating your enemies' or
relatives' brains works after all. =20

WRT SF antecedents, Damon Knight has a giant amoeba with a similar habit to
the alzabo.  Riffing on race memory, Greg Bear has DNA, (or was it
microtubule based computers?), storing all one's ancestors' experiences in
_Blood Music_. =20

David Duffy.

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