"Hey, Norm, flick the switch again. This hamster looks like he knows where he is..."

[sensaes]

'The circadian rhythm that quietly pulses inside us all, guiding our daily cycle from sleep to wakefulness and back to sleep again, may be doing much more than just that simple metronomic task, according to Stanford researchers. Working with Siberian hamsters, biologist Norman Ruby has shown that having a functioning circadian system is critical to the hamsters' ability to remember what they have learned. Without it, he said, "They can't remember anything." Though not known for their academic prowess, Siberian hamsters nonetheless normally develop what amounts to street smarts about their environment, as do all animals. But hamsters whose circadian system was disabled by a new technique Ruby and his colleagues developed consistently failed to demonstrate the same evidence of remembering their environment as hamsters with normally functioning circadian systems.'

More here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081008151318.htm

(And there is a potentially useful application for this research. Beyond...you know...fucking around with poor little hamster brains for a laugh. Honest. Addendum: Via K, who does appreciate what a pain ethics committees can be... "Prison overcrowding and the need for more suitably matched test subjects? Just saying.")

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Edit: Notebook roundup...

http://www.blackcover.net/?p=31

"Recycling" bits of vinyl records and the hardback covers of old books, and turning 'em into notebook covers for profit?

That's giving vandals a licence to make money out of wanton cultural destruction.

Nil points.

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Amusing, but...



...it's probably time now to stop stretching the meaning of "ownership" merely to pander to the ignorant.

(Cheers to robotopless.)