"FLICKR, STEVE JURVETSON Using a modified scorpion neurotoxin or antibodies to target gold nanoparticles to the surface of neurons, researchers have created a new way to stimulate brain cells in culture. All it takes is a little bit of light to heat the particles, which changes the capacitance of the membrane, resulting in the depolarization of the cell and the firing of an action potential. “We call it optogenetics without the genetics,” said biophysicist Francisco “Pancho” Bezanilla of the University of Chicago, “exciting cells in the nervous system without going through all the difficulty of creating a transgenic animal. . . . It’s a shortcut.”" - Todd Hoff