Panel preview, sent by the mysterious 13:

There have been clues in a few places, including the secret Doktor Sleepless community.

As cnawan tweeted:  “I’ll bet in a year or two this won’t qualify as a joke any more”

iScreener *

Thrills, chills and more Sarah Berlin?

Image via Avatar Press‘ flickr.

Hensch and his collaborators have now found that basket-cell development is controlled by a protein called Otx2. Overexpressing this protein can trigger a critical period of plasticity, while removing Otx2 halts it. While the findings are specific to the visual system, Hensch notes that different sensory systems also possess basket cells, and those might function the same way.

A second mechanism for manipulating neural plasticity in adults is blocking inhibitory molecules that the nervous system produces to stop neural growth. “The nervous system is hostile to growing new axons [the long neural projections that connect cells], which is why recovery after spinal-cord injury is so challenging,” says Hensch. 

Myelin cells, which form an insulating layer around axons, secrete some of these inhibitory molecules. By experimenting with certain drugs that loosen myelin, Hensch and his collaborators found they could make the normally stable visual system of adult rodents become plastic again, allowing amblyopic rodents to recover. (However, the drug used in the study is toxic, making it unlikely to be a useful therapy.)

     The article goes on, in brief, to explore the possible links between brain plasticity and autisim and the possible downsides of re-engaging the brain’s “plastic” state at later ages.    

You know, it’s not hard science by any stretch of the imagination, but I can’t help but think of Grant Morrison’s claims that A) Mr. Fantastic uses his powers to enhance his brain’s plasticity, and B) that Mr. Fantastic has Asperger Syndrome.

Here at Pictures For Sad Children, they talk of many things…afterlife and hallicinations. Probably carpenters and kings too. But this especially made me smile. Not in the nice way.

And just so we’re clear, it’s a ghost doing all the talking. Not a pickle.

- photo from imagecomics.com

Transhuman #3 is out today (or tomorrow) depending on your locale.

Picked it up yet? I would - it contains interesting revelations about the company.

Re-tweeting, I mean re-blogging, Warren; for the five of you that don’t read his site too.

NO HERO #0, the first chapter of the story, is still available — if your local comics store doesn’t have a copy, ask them to order it for you, it’s only one American dollar.

NO HERO #1 is coming in a few weeks.

Also - Doktor Sleepless#8 is coming soon.

Is it just me, or does it seem like the future we’re heading towards is written by Stan Lee? After the marvels of snake like robots, German scientists have created a glass chip that spins silk by emulating a spider’s silk ducts.

Spiders’ silk ducts contain glands that process a gel of simple proteins into long fibres of protein. Different glands alter the chemistry of the gel in different ways, producing silk with different properties. The artificial duct is a glass chip shot through with tiny tubes that tries to mimic those processes. The team has not tested the artificial silk’s mechanical properties, but its grainy appearance suggests it does not yet rival the quality of the real thing. Refinements are underway with the goal of making industrial quantities of artificial silk.

Can’t be long now until some geeky lab technician wires a prototype up to some wristbands to impress the ladies.

The future? Make mine Marvel!

from New Scientist

Sprint! Don’t run, don’t walk, to grab your copy now.

And I don’t want to hear any of this “oh, but I’m waiting for the trade” nonsense. That won’t be out for months; probably October at the earliest.

Trust me, delicious feast though it will be, you don’t want to wait that long.

So if you haven’t made your way to this site from reading the adventures of Doktor, what are you waiting for?

Don’t you want to be happy like me? :D

Er, sorry, got a bit carried away there.  But I get this weird feeling looking at the robot snake developed by the Carnegie Mellon University, which can wiggle its way inside a body and perform cardiac ablations:

It’s controlled by a joystick at the moment sure, but how long before someone tries to graft one (or four) on to their spinal column, huh?

Calming down now, Technology Review reports how

It has 102 degrees of freedom, three of which can be activated at once. This allows it to enter through a single point in the chest and wrap around the heart until it reaches the right spot to, say, remove problematic tissue.

This pic shows the CardioArm moving around inside the membrane encasing a pig’s heart (successful cardiovascular surgeries has been performed on nine pigs and two human cadavers, with live human trials due to start later in the year).  Ok.  Feeling better now.  But hang on, what else do the researchers say?

The team hopes to start testing the CardioArm in natural-orifice surgery–a technique where tissues are removed through existing openings in the body, such as the mouth, to avoid postoperative pain and reduce recovery time… and aim to have surgeons use CardioArms in unison, like “an octopus, with two or three tentacles” all entering through one incision and then branching out.

Watch out, webhead.

On Pulp 2.0:

My Gawd!

Will someone please get this man a computer?!

I miss his posts telling me, “Don’t look.”

It’s too damn quiet…

As a kid, I loved Peanuts, but I hated Garfield.  He was just so mean, and being a sensitive kid (yeah, yeah) I just didn’t get it.

So the work of Garfield Minus Garfield, in systematically removing the cat from the comic strips, is both a vindication and, actually, quite weird.  As noted on the site “Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life?”

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FreakAngels.  Be Ready.

A free webcomics saga told in 5-page weekly installments, written by Warren Ellis with art by Paul Duffield. Launch date: 02/15/08.