Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Cultivating the Third Eye

Cultivating the Third Eye
(Science Magazine)

“In lower vertebrates, the pineal organ had a visual role which got lost during evolution. Our experiments show that this vestigial organ can be activated in vertebrates,” says Jangir. Both the eyes and the pineal organ depend on similar developmental signals in the embryo and express the same homeobox gene, he says. Ramesh Ramachandra Bhonde of the National Center for Cell Science in Pune (India) calls the achievement “an important milestone” that contributes to the value of the pineal gland as a model in studies of both evolution and development.

Can’t expect any less from a country with a popular three-eyed deity.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

HP Lovecraft would be quite amused.