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hello and welcome to the SSC meeting a

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secretary I'd like to welcome you I know

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it's the last day right now but this is

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I guess one of the first opportunities

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I've had to to welcome you I hope you're

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enjoying yourself so far what we're

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going to do is going to diverge a little

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bit why because I'm an entomologist and

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I play with bugs so we're going to talk

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about protein semiconductors in relation

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to insect olfaction now a number of you

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probably are more familiar with

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semiconductors then you would be insect

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olfaction for that reason I'm gonna go

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spend a little more time talking about

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insect olfaction so that you understand

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where I'm coming from and why I'm going

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to go in the direction of the

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semiconductors at the end of the talk

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first how do insects smell I think

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everyone knows I hope everyone knows

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that they all smell with their antennae

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they smell with their antennae and this

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is no more obvious in some of the large

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moths largest moth of the world right

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here 11 inch wingspan atticus Atlas and

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they take a look at the antenna here

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especially on the Saturn I it's because

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they're so big but it's not really the

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antenna itself it's usually the sencilla

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so if you get a close-up of the sencilla

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you can see on this scanning electron

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micrograph that they have these long

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tricloid sencilla

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which we know are the detectors and

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these are the actual detectors of the

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molecules that they are smelling such as

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the pheromone or the plan odorants now

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if I go ahead and make a cross-section

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now of this you can see that the

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sencilla is does have some tiny pores in

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the side right there they also have some

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dendrites emanating from these cells

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down here try could get into our image

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and cell the dendrites are sent up

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they're bathed in a saline solution and

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this is the basic setup for most types

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of insect sencilla this is where i'm an

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agreement with them and we do not differ

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at all things start to get a little

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hairy right now let me tell you what the

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current theory is right now so that

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you're up to date we have the pheromones

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out here the pheromone is in blue the

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pheromone diffuses through the air it

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lands on the sense illa this is the

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sencilla right here the outside there is

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a very very thin layer of wax they

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usually imbed in the wax and when they

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embed in the wax they diffuse through

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the wax make their way to some tiny

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pores through it and then they have to

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wait they have to wait because it's a

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lipid water and oil don't mix

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this is water the pheromones are a

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long-chain 14 carbon acetate and

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therefore they're not going to diffuse

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through it they have to wait for a

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pheromone binding protein which is

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pretty large in order to come along grab

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it from the poor pull it in

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it will then ferry it across this until

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early it will then make its way to a

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receptor and somehow binding is meant to

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occur whether it's with the pheromone

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directly or whether it's with the

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pheromone binding protein complex with

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the pheromone and this is how detection

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occurs you are now up to date and you

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can now publish any information on

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insect olfaction because this is about

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as far as we go

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you can apply for an NIH grant NSF grant

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and you will get funded for this now

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what is the overlying theme right here

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diffusion diffusion diffusion

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we've got diffusion through the air

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we've got diffusion through a wax layer

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and I've got now diffusion through this

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ancillary limb even though it has to

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piggyback on a pheromone binding protein

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well this makes my job a little bit

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easier right now because when you've got

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a mechanism as singular as diffusion

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there are some laws that you can follow

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and you think to yourself wow this is

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diffusion I mean we can predict this

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sure it's going to be faster through air

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slower through the wax and a little bit

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faster through the water though but

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there are some some generalizations that

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can be made and Informer talks I've let

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you know that diffusion does not account

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for the ability for the pheromone to

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reach the receptor in time if parent if

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the diffusion is all I have to work with

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and I assure you that this is all I have

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to work with then according to the

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current theory I can't get to that

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pheromone to the dendrite in time in

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order to say that the insect is now

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detecting it how long does this take

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this takes one millisecond no it takes a

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little bit less than one millisecond

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point eight point seven milliseconds now

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to biologists some of you impressed

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right now I think and Tom that's fast

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but to you physicists you're like that's

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casual you know one millisecond because

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you guys are dealing with nanoseconds

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picoseconds maybe femtoseconds we're but

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the biology is and we're dealing with

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less than one millisecond that is

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lightning fast for a biological system

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so what to do here is our cross section

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I've blown it up a little bit so you can

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take a closer

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to see what we're talking about the

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pheromone the friend when I'm dealing

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with is about two nanometers long but

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the pores are between 10 and 50

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nanometers in diameter what's going to

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happen when the pheromone hits a

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scintilla it's going to clog the pores

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it's going to clog the pores because

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there's just not that much room and it's

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not just the pheromone that gets in

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anything that the insect wants to smell

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is going to have to get through those

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pores and get to the dendrite anything

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plant odorants pheromone you name it and

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so everything is going to get clogged

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because it's not going to diffuse it has

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to wait for a ferryboat in order to

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carry it across problem also so the

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researchers looked for the proteins

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because they got the funding for it

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research look for proteins directly on

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the dendrite well that makes sense I

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mean we do know that there's got to be

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something there the dendrites are

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detecting it somehow so you take a look

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at the proteins and they found some of

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course because there's always proteins

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on dendrites but they were not the

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putative receptors so they had to keep

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looking the research then tuned to

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scanning the genetic codes again are oh

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you can't find them directly through

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direct means let's do this indirectly

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will scan the genetic code we're going

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to look for G proteins why why you're

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going to look for G proteins because we

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know that G proteins are involved in

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human olfaction so for UMD's out there

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old news for you for the rest of you

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this is new news so the G proteins are

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looked at lo and behold they find them

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but they don't find them in great

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quantity mu new labeling comes in next

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yes they find them in the sense illa but

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the immuno labeling comes in and they

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show a very low concentration of these

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putative receptors so the question is

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where are they and then the big one no

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receptor ligand binding has been

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demonstrated to date so as I stand

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before you

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there is no receptor ligand binding

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there is no receptor binding this has

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not been shown yet it is assumed this is

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also a problem why is this I mean as a

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matter of fact this is a huge problem

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why can't you show binding in

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pharmacology we know that molecules bind

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to like siedel choline acetylcholine

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receptors this makes sense but this we

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haven't been able to show any binding so

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this thing kind of brings me to the

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which I've talked about before but let

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me just review for you right now the

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current theory is about lock and key

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it's about this binding that I told you

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about the receptor and it's got the

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pheromone the lock and key hypothesis

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olfaction says we've got the receptor

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the pheromone comes along and it binds

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with it and this is what causes the

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message to make it to the dendrite the

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vibrational theory of odor which some of

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you know I am a proponent of does not

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say that it's a lock and key system it

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can operate either by touching the

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sencilla on the outside if it's acting

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as an antenna or it can simply come in

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close proximity very close proximity to

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the antenna and the antenna or that

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since Silla will be able to detect it

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that's the vibrational Theory voter I

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believe that insects are smelling

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electromagnetically so let's take a look

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but if I'm putting this forward some of

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you might be thinking I I don't follow

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this is new stuff Tom I need some help

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what's the mechanism I mean you've got a

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message on the outside of the sencilla

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and you got to get it to the inside

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dendrite the electrophysiologist tell us

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that the dendrite d polarizes a normal

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depolarization just like a normal neuron

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and a normal neuronal spike passes down

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the neuron to eventually reach the

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normal brain nothing new about this so

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because this is a normal spike we know

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that dendrite is somehow involved if the

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antenna was the detector the antenna was

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the detector this whole sencilla right

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here acting as an antenna then the

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neurons which we do know are projecting

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up would be unnecesarry

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we wouldn't need them because the

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detection is done at the level of the

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antenna but we know that there's a

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message going down the neuron so if the

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antenna is simply the primary detector

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but not the final detector then how does

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a normal spike and it's very normal get

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initiated in the nerve cell and this is

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what brings me to the proteins

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ultimately sooner or later one must

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consider that certain proteins on the

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dendrite are mediating this occurrence

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in some fashion but like the grinch but

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how and so because this is going on and

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I do believe that proteins are involved

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but I don't believe it's lock and key we

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got to take a look at these proteins but

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my problem is that because I'm not

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dealing with a lock and key I've got to

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figure out how to get an electromagnetic

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message in

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an electromagnetic message as it passes

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down the nerve now there is a little bit

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of it's not just electromagnetic

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electromagnetic there's going to have to

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be some some interplay here and so this

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kind of brings me to the point where I

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think all right I need a protein and I

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need it to react to electromagnetic

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energy I'll search the literature see

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what I can find what do I find well the

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first thing that pops up is probably the

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most studies rhodopsin I'm looking at

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you right now you're looking at me

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rhodopsin is firing it's a great system

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what happens in rhodopsin which is a

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protein by the way incoming light hits

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the rhodopsin molecule there is a shift

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in electron density this shift and

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electron density causes a conformational

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change can't get much easier than that

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it bends alright and so this is measured

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this is measured because the rhodopsin

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is that are in our eye it's attached to

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the cell membrane cell membrane has some

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great electromagnetic properties to it

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and it's detected and it's a beautiful