disco_nap

The focus on this article is demographics, but the most important things to tribes are our language, culture, and tribal sovereignty. We are not a box on a census form and never will be.

We are pre-Constitutional sovereigns, recognized by our treaties with the U.S. and Canada. States like Michigan might force our teachers get "foreign language certificates," despite the fact that Michigan is a word from our language[0], but my children speak their language and our culture are pillars of strength and stability in our family. Blood quanta, problems of race in America, what to call us -- that's not our focus.

[0]https://www.interlochenpublicradio.org/michigan-education/20...

Are the losses thermal? How significantly could this change the ocean temperature near the cable? 50% of 600 GW is enough to cause a 10C increase in the temperature of 10 million liters of seawater every second?

I think it should be obvious that you cannot study electrical excitability in dead, fixed cadaver tissue.

This is top-notch science, but might be hard for people to appreciate.

This study does not report that that layer V cortical neurons are missing a particular ion channel. They examine currents through HCN and voltaged-gated potassium channels and find differences in the total current carried that depends on species.

In general, epileptic disorders are observed across species. It's common in dogs, for instance: https://www.akcchf.org/canine-health/top-health-concerns/epi...

A ton of papers examining ion channel expression in epilepsy that should be more relevant: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=human+ion+channel+epil...

The majority of a neuron's transmembrane capacitance is attributed to the lipid membrane itself, so a lower density of ion channels should not appreciably alter capacitance.

Action potential rates and the ability to phase-lock to inputs are significantly affected by the membrane time constant. Generally, membranes with lower conductances at rest and during spiking will have higher (slower) membrane time constants. This isn't a straightforward explanation for the ability of human some neurons to phase lock to higher frequencies.

Impedance data across species relevant to this idea is in Extended Data Figure 2 and 5 of the paper.

The original research article is the subject of an editorial expression of concern. There is no direct evidence to support the title of the post.

As an academic neuroscientist doing animal experiments, my hope is that animal research will eventually be obsolete, but think we are 1-2 centuries away from the required technology to do mechanistic and ethical experiments in ourselves. The article points out some questionable experiments but left out what we have learned/developed using animal models. This includes sars-cov-2 vaccines [1], the molecular identity of neurotransmitters [2], and gene therapies for SMA1, which typically kills children before their fifth birthday [3]. Animal activist's hearts are in the right place and we try to treat them as ethically as we can. I personally known several patients with ALS who have died and feel incredible urgency as a scientist. Animal testing is currently highly effective and irreplaceable. I would urge people who's perspective on animal testing is shaped by interactions with their pets to volunteer with charities that aid families with seriously ill children [4].

1 https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/08/america-...

2 https://journals.physiology.org/doi/pdf/10.1152/classicessay...

3 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1706198

4 https://www.rmhc.org/

Kids demand a lot of time but can be remarkably unselfish. My 3 y.o. daughter made my bed this morning and tries to help me if I seem tired. We help each other out, and parenthood opened me up to a way of living that was less self-interested.