Esprit de Escargot
Well, they did say they trained marine snails…
In the snail experiment, researchers put bryostatin in sea water, days in advance of any learning or training, causing certain proteins to be made by the neurons of the snails.
When the snails were trained days later, instead of remembering something for a minute or two, they would remember it for weeks, researchers said.
I’m thrilled to hear such wonderful news about a possible Alzheimer’s treatment, but the real breakthrough in my mind is trained snails. Who ‘remember‘ sh&t for weeks! How aMAZING is that?
UPDATE: After a little in-depth, scientific research of my own, I have determined that there are NINE (count ’em, NINE) “training events” in which the snails in this experiment were forced to participate against their snail-y wills. (It says so right here in the research paper bulletin.) I want to know just what exactly ARE these ‘events’ and if the snails are, at any time, in danger or pain.
Fun | Mr. Bingley | 
October 24, 2005 10:21 pm
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Somewhere in the world is an ad for a snail trainer. I just can’t get over it.
Trained snails.
Sheesh.
Uh, oh. A snail could do my job without the bryostatin.
I bet they’ll work for less than me, too.
Does it make them taste better, though? 😉
If we are discussing “escargot”, do you mean French marine snails?
No, JeffS. Those would be untrainable, if they lived long enough to be anything but tablefare.
French. Pffft.
Uh, Jeff, my (admittedly limited) understanding is that escargot is not from marine snails but from regular, garden variety (literally) snails. The kind I kill by the thousands with Ortho. But what can you expect from a culture that worships Jerry Lewis?
(Yankee snail killer capitalist imperial chemical Kenny pig dog.)
The bait stuff that shrivels them up?
“Chemical Kenny”? Considering my chosen career path, I rather like that…