scotophobinn.
/skəʊtə(ʊ)ˈfəʊbɪn/, U.S. /ˌskoʊdoʊˈfoʊbɪn/, /ˌskoʊdəˈfoʊbɪn/ Biochemistry. Now historical.
An oligopeptide obtained from the brains of rats which had been trained to avoid darkness, formerly claimed to induce dark avoidance in untrained rats and possibly animals of other species.
ΚΠ
1970 G. Ungar et al. in Proc. Western Pharmacol. Soc. 13 150 We propose to give the name ‘scotophobin’ to the new substance.
1975 Behavioral Biol. 15 470 Acceptance of these assumptions forces us to reject the hypothesis that ‘fear of the dark’ was encoded in scotophobin.
1988 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 19 Apr. c1 Mr. [Walter] Stewart..took the lead in 1972 in demonstrating that a chemical called scotophobin, which could supposedly transfer behavior learned by one rat into the brain of another, did not in fact exist.
2002 Cell 111 453/1 The now-discredited idea that specific memories reside in specific molecules (e.g., planarian RNAs or scotophobin).
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1970- to see at eye
- to see away
- to see beyond one's nose
- to see coming
- to see company
- to see day
- to see daylight
- to see double
- to see etc of
- to see eye to eye
- to see face to face
- to see face with face
- to see fair
- to see fair play
- to see far in a millstone
- to see far into a millstone
- to see far through a millstone
- to see fashions
- to see for
- to see for oneself
- to see for what he is
- to see for what it is
- to see for what she is
- to see forthcoming
- to see good