[MURG] RFC - necessary neuron info

[Eugen Leitl]

On Wed, Oct 08, 2003 at 11:58:41AM -0500, Joseph J. Strout wrote:
> 
> I'm not quite sure I follow your point here.  I'm thinking about what 
> sort of scanning technologies are required.  Apart from the 
> possibility of gene activation, I think everything we need could be 
> captured by, say, serial-section EM (electron microscopy).  But if 

I'm thinking EM is good for simple, deterministic critters like
nematodes & tardigrades/rotifers (these can be possibly imaged
desiccated at moderate temperatures); it won't do for, say, mammals. This
is not really bad news, as the computer hardware base advancements will
be accompanied by progress in imaging. The technologies are related, and
there is considerable demand from medicine and biology. Unless 
global economy tanks sustainably, and we're of average lifespan, 
we should see most of it.

> gene activation is something we can't ignore or infer from 
> morphology, then EM won't cut it, and we'll need to use something far 
> more exotic.

We're starting with cryopreserved tissue, we can already image those at
molecular and even atomic resolution. The only exotic part is to scale this
up to large surfaces and volumes. Challenging, yes, impossible, no.
 
> I'm hoping it's not a safe bet.  But as for your second statement, 
> you seem to be thinking about the modeling; I'm thinking about the 
> data capture.  If we can infer gene activation state from phenotype 

Luckily, the data set is not volatile at all -- as long as the cryofluid is
still there, that is :)

> (morphology in particular), then great!  Let's do that.  If not, then 
> we need to come up with a way to determine gene activation state of 
> individual cells in cold, sectioned tissue.

I don't see why it is impossible to identify individual molecules. Most
of cell volume is water, it's useless to scan water at high resolution.
It will probably require sampling of individual molecules in a population,
and possibly high-resolution scans of specific, very small subvolumes.

None of this will be probably important for primitive, already otherwise
well characterized animals.
 
-- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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