Thanks, once again, to Ed Yong for his fantastic NotExactlyRocketScience blog. This video is a must-watch for students, especially those taking HL and the Neurobiology option. Once you’ve seen it, go over to Ed’s blog and read the article “Shedding light on sex and violence in the brain“, which is a really interesting look at the balance between sex and aggression in mouse brains, using this method.

You can see why it is the winner of Nature Methods’ 2010 Method of the Year (click for lots of articles).

Although it is way ahead of the syllabus, there are links to:

• taxis
• membrane proteins, channels and ions
• depolarisation and hyperpoloarisation of nerves
• transgenics (using viruses as a vector for delivering new genes)
• transcription and translation
• regions of the brain