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Neuroscience: The great squid hunt

Nature volume 454, pages 934–936 (2008)Cite this article

When jumbo Humboldt squid disappeared from Chilean waters, it led to the demise of a world-class electrophysiology laboratory. Now the creatures are back, finds Tony Scully, and so are the scientists.

It was three years ago that electrophysiologist Francisco Bezanilla heard that the squid were back. That summer he had already travelled from the University of California, Los Angeles, to the Woods Hole Marine Laboratory, Massachusetts, in pursuit of the creatures. Like other researchers, he spent two months there each year when the Atlantic or longfin inshore squid, Loligo pealeii, bred in local waters. He found their giant nerve cells the best biological preparation for studying the electrical signals that cross the cell membrane. But he still struggled to isolate the weak signal generated by the flow of potassium ions.

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References

  1. Rojas, E. & Luxoro, M. Nature 199, 78–79 (1963).

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  2. Armstrong, C. M., Bezanilla, F. & Rojas, E. J. Gen. Physiol. 62, 375–391 (1973).

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  1. Tony Scully
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Tony Scully has just finished an internship in Nature's Munich office.

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Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory homepage

University of Chile

Chris Miller, Brandeis University

David Gadsby

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Scully, T. Neuroscience: The great squid hunt. Nature 454, 934–936 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/454934a

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