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back to article Trio share 2014 Nobel Prize for cracking internal GPS of the brain

The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to three neurologists for their work in helping to understand how the brain can remember where we are – and finding out which nerve cells are responsible. Half of the prize was awarded to American-born John O'Keefe, who is a naturalized Brit and has spent his …

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    1. KjetilS
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      Re: I am impressed,,, very impressed.

      We have enough scientists to do both, and you generally can't use rocket scientists to study brains.

      6 1 Reply
      1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge
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        Re: I am impressed,,, very impressed.

        you generally can't use rocket scientists to study brains

        Sure I can. Haven't you heard of functional MRI?

        0 0 Reply
    2. Dave 126 Silver badge
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      Re: I am impressed,,, very impressed.

      Various scenarios have been explored in SF, includingb ut not limited to:

      1. Asteroid renders Earth uninhabitable. Humanity is wiped out. No brains to study.

      2. Brains are studied, and minds transferred to a substrate. Galaxy is explored by 'humankind' without the inconvenience of bodies.

      3. We study ourselves, and decide we aren't worth the raw elements.

      4. We explore space, and some aliens give us a better understanding of ourselves and our minds. Clarke.

      5. TROTM. Singularity. Neuromancer. Whatever. Cameron. Gibson.

      6. We invent robot hookers. Aldiss.

      1 0 Reply
  2. Gray Ham Bronze badge
    Thumb Up

    Great work.

    A well deserved award, and I expect there's a lot more to discover about how this works.

    I wonder, do these cells adjust if you move to a radically new environment? How long would it take?

    Signed: an expatriate pom who spent his first 5 years in Aus thinking North was South and vice versa.

    3 0 Reply
    1. AbelSoul
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      Re: I expect there's a lot more to discover about how this works.

      Indeed. Outstanding bit of brain-boffinry that nonetheless only scratches the surface.

      Hopefully this will help accelerate related research.

      Impressive stuff.

      0 0 Reply
    2. DocJames
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      Coat

      Re: Great work.

      I think they only work on smaller scales than hemispheric.

      (DOI: Expat in NZ)

      0 0 Reply
    3. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: thinking North was South and vice versa.

      ah, orientation by the sun; I had the same for a bit problem after doing the reverse trip.

      0 0 Reply
  3. Ivan Headache

    I often thought that something like this was happening.

    Both myself and my younger daughter can retrace our steps to a starting point without any difficulty over a journey of several tens of miles in unfamiliar territory. We can also revisit a place having only been there once - even if was many years ago. My wife and my elder daughter are completely unable to do either - even if the the journey was only an our ago!

    My youngest amazed us when she was about 3 years old, by taking my wife back to our parked hire-car in a huge, crowded, Florida theme-park parking-lot when she could barely see over a car bonnet.

    She did the same in London once aged about 5. We had parked up near UCL in Bloomsbury. We split up, I went with my eldest to an event and the wife and the yongest went off to go shopping in the Covent Garden area.

    At the appointed hour she reappeard at the car with mother in tow, with mother saying "I don't know how she did that - but she's walked straight back here and I've been following all the way."

    1 0 Reply
    1. Allan George Dyer
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      Re: I often thought that something like this was happening.

      If this ability can be detected remotely, we'll know WHO to ask for directions.

      0 0 Reply
  4. Faux Science Slayer

    FINALLY....i can blame the Dorsal Partition of my Hippocampus....

    for losing my car keys....

    0 0 Reply

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