A number of innovative experiments have been devised in an attempt to develop a better understanding of how learning takes place at a cellular level. One unusual experiment involves utilizing thousands of rat neurons in a Petri dish to create art. Carried out by researchers in the United States and Australia, the neurons are thousands of miles away from a robotic arm that holds a set of three markers above a canvas. A system of electrodes connects the neurons to a computer, which is linked to another computer controlling the robotic arm via the internet. Signals sent by the neurons in response to stimuli in their environment control the movement of the arm, and thus the drawings that are produced as the markers progress across the canvas.

Myelin basic protein, which is expressed by myelinated nerve fibers, and glial fibrillary acidic protein, a type III intermediate filament protein found primarily in astroglia, were immunofluorescently labeled in the rat brain sagittal tissue section presented above by treating the specimen with a cocktail of mouse anti-myelin BP and rabbit anti-GFAP primary antibodies followed by goat anti-mouse and anti-rabbit secondary antibodies conjugated to Alexa Fluor 488 and Alexa Fluor 568, respectively. Hoechst 33342, a dsDNA-interactive agent, was utilized to target cell nuclei. Finally, Hoechst 33342 was employed to counterstain cell nuclei. Nuclear DNA was counterstained with Hoechst 33342. Images were recorded in grayscale with a 12-bit digital camera coupled to a Nikon Eclipse 80i microscope equipped with bandpass emission fluorescence filter optical blocks. During the processing stage, individual image channels were pseudocolored with RGB values corresponding to each of the fluorophore emission spectral profiles.