after a week in Chicago for the Biological Systems that Learn workshop @nitmb.bsky.social, I've been traveling back to SF via train over ~55 hours. Today is Day 3 on Amtrak for me and I've never experienced more scenic backdrops for working on a manuscript

I also brought some live Stentor with me on the plane along with a portable microscope if you want to see them up close! Stentor plushie made by lab mate Connie Yan

but for actual mating/conjugation, it's been reported that micronuclei do get exchanged (after the macronucleus breaks up)!

And thank you for reading our paper!! I have tried training Stentor while they're mating and indeed they do learn in sync! here's my favorite Stentor mating video:

While we’ve uncovered some important features of cell learning, so many mysteries persist! A burning question: which molecules drive cell learning? Stay tuned for our next paper! By researching how a single cell learns, we can begin to unravel the origins of intelligence 13/n

When Stentor receive repeated weak mechanical stimulation, however, they habituate and thus stop contracting and remain in their elongated state. Below is a video of Stentor that have become habituated after an hour of repeated stimulation. 5/n

When Stentor experience a mechanical stimulus, they contract into a ball-like shape – presumably to escape from predators lurking in the pond. 4/n

How can a single cell learn without a brain or nervous system? We explore this in our new preprint with
@wallaceucsf.bsky.social! We discovered that central features of learning in single cells can be accounted for by a model based on receptor inactivation bit.ly/3CDukfS 🧵 1/n