Let's Turn the Lights Off to Turn the Stars On

Please turn off the lights: the effectiveness of visual prompts.

Two early studies showed that visual prompts can be effectively used to encourage people to turn off the lights in unoccupied classrooms, but they were methodologically limited. The current study used an ABAB-B design with an 11-week follow-up to investigate whether two different visual prompts (large and small signs) could be employed to increase "lights off" behaviour in 17 unoccupied washroo...

Signal Amplification: Let's Turn Down The Lights

G protein activation by membrane-bound receptors initiates a chain reaction that amplifies cellular responses to external signals. In retinal photoreceptors, amplification by the phototransduction cascade is regulated by quickly switching off the visual pigment that acts as the receptor for light.

To the Framingham data, turn, turn, turn.

Bacterial Pathogenesis: When a turn off is a turn on

Pathogenic bacteria express distinct sets of genes at different stages in their life cycles; inappropriate expression of normally repressed genes during host colonization can interfere with bacterial survival.

Sleep: How Many Switches Does It Take To Turn Off the Lights?

Sleeping animals do not move or feed and are less responsive. In Caenorhabditis elegans, a single neuron triggers sleep. A recent study shows that the neuron releases several neuropeptides - each with distinct sleep behavioral effects - to promote the collection of behaviors that is sleep.