Genetic "Light Switches" Control Muscle Movement From: Technology Review - 09/27/2010 By: Erika Jonietz The technique will improve research on neuromuscular disorders and could one day help paralyzed patients. Using light-sensitive proteins from a single-celled alga and a tiny LED "cuff" placed on a nerve, researchers have triggered the leg muscles of mice to contract in response to millisecond pulses of light. Read the entire article at: http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/26346/page1/ Links: Artificially firing neurons http://www.technologyreview.com/tr35/Profile.aspx?Cand=T&TRID=454 Decoding the Brain with Light http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/23767/?a=f The Light Fantastic http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0719/opinions-lasers-algae-bioengineering-ideas-opinions.html Karl Deisseroth http://www.stanford.edu/group/dlab/about_pi.html