Friday, April 18, 2014

A Different Way To Become Smarter...!

If you have ever wished that you could take a pill and become a little smarter, then this might be just the thing for you!

According to this article I found over at KnowledgeNuts, there is research that supposedly proves that cannibalism could just be the key to gaining more knowledge. Imagine being able to eat your way to smartness! Might be just the thing for those having trouble in college, ya know?

Some Animals Can Consume Knowledge Through Cannibalism
By Flamehorse on Wednesday, April 9, 2014

The above statement got everyone looking for proof, because even a rotter of a movie can’t throw around scientific statements without there being some truth to them. It turns out that this fact is a fact, true, and very difficult to believe. Experiments from the 1960s show that it even works in rats and mice.

The scientist who came up with this experiment is Dr. James V. McConnell, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Michigan (USA) in the 1960s, who had a hunch that planarians (flatworms) could be trained to run mazes. He proceeded to do so. He first trained them to be afraid of the heat of a bright light, which, after many attempts, made them curl up to protect themselves. Soon they were curling up whenever they felt the heat or saw the light.

Then he chopped them up and fed them to planarians unaccustomed to the bright light and heat. This second group curled up the first time he shone the light on them. McConnell was naturally thrilled and took the experiment to the next level. He taught a group of planarians to run a maze. This took a long time of course, since planarians are very simple animals, and the species in question was microscopic.

After 150 attempts, the flatworms could find their way correctly every time. McConnell pronounced them knowledgeable of how to run the maze. Then he first tried cutting the head off one worm and grafting it onto another. This didn’t work because the head wouldn’t stay on. Then he ground up this batch of worms and tried injecting them into a second group. This failed because the worms were about the same size as the point of the needle, which crushed them.

He might have been stumped at ths point, had it not been for a worm enthusiast named Jay Boyd Best, who wrote him a letter suggesting that feed the worms to a particular species of cannibalistic planarian. So McConnell acquired some specimens of this species of flatworm and fed the trained group to this new group. The new group was able to run the maze correctly the first time, but not correctly every time until they practiced 100 times. He trained a separate control group to run the maze, and this group required about 150, just like the group he ground up.

McConnell became famous for a time, even though the very premise of his research seemed too much like a Frankenstein story to grab the scientific community. He did, however, receive a fast promotion to full professor and made it onto some science shows like Watch Mr. Wizard. Scientists who found his work interesting then took the next step, performing the same experiment with mice and rats, and they found that it still worked.

Such experiments continue to this day and continue to raise eyebrows.

Now I don't know this for sure but I think it might be more than a little time before these "smart pills" would ever be on the market. I have to admit that there are more than a few folks I think would benefit from something along these lines! Heck, we could start with passing them out in D.C. and go from there, ya know? Couldn't hurt!

Coffee out on the patio this morning. I'll share some sausage gravy and fried 'taters!

11 comments:

Mamahen said...

Very interesting in a scary kind of way! Having read this, i'll pass on the gravy n biscuits ,and just have some fresh fruit salad :)) I'll shareif anyone else wants some :))

Gorges Smythe said...

So then the cannibals weren't completely wrong in believing that eating their enemy would give them their powers! We'd best not let that get out. lol

Gorges Smythe said...

Mamahen, are you say that you'd rather hang on a tree than live in the mud?

Chickenmom said...

Yuk, yuk, yuk! Ever eat a worm that was in an apple? I'll stay dumb, thank you!
Breakfast sounds wonderful - save me a seat!

linda m said...

Very interesting experiment. There sure are some days I could use a smart pill. But let's try them on DC first. Save my spot on the swing this morning and I'll be there. Have a great weekend.

Anonymous said...

Nasty but interesting. I think I feel smart enough as it is so I don't have to start eating my neighbors :-) :-) :-)

Have a great day!
Christer.

Dizzy-Dick said...

The main problem humans would have with this way of learning is to find someone willing to be chopped up and eaten. . . can I have ketchup with that???

BBC said...

I've seen and learned enough to drive me crazy and don't want to see anymore.

JO said...

I'm quite happy where I am in smarts right now. Not saying its to late to learn more just not like that.

Refill please.

HermitJim said...

Hey Mamahen...
It is interesting, for sure! The fruit salad sounds pretty good to me as well!

Thanks for coming over today!



Hey Gorges...
Yeah, this is a secret that we may want to keep hidden from some folks!

Thanks for the visit today!



Hey Phyllis...
I can't say that I have ever done that! Don't really want to, either!

Thanks for dropping in today!



Hey Linda M...
I think we all have days like that!

The swing is ready when you are!

Thanks for coming over this morning!



Hey Christer...
I'm sure the neighbors will appreciate that!

I really do aPPRECIATE YOU COMING OVER TODAY!



Hey Dizzy...
Might be hard to get some qualified volunteers, I reckon.

Plenty of ketchup handy!

Thanks for coming over today!



Hey BBC...
Somethings are just better left alone, I think.

Thanks for the visit!



Hey Jo...
Yeah, book learning might be better! Not as tasty, though.

Thanks, sweetie, for dropping in today!

Mindvalley said...

Thanks,I appreciate your sharing this!
https://blog.mindvalley.com/how-to-get-smarter/