Floor-length tulle dresses in primary brights later in the show would swoop through the lobby on the way to a cocktail party, as would satin sheaths and sequinned gowns.
Likewise, genes involved in making the myelin sheaths that insulate nerve cells go wrong in both schizophrenic and bipolar patients.
Sheaths of various kinds became popular in the 18th century, but libertines such as Casanova saw them more as protection against disease than as a form of birth control.
Since the filaments that connect distant nerve cells are surrounded by fatty sheaths which restrict the movement of water, such molecules tend to move along a filament rather than out of it.
Cells called oligodendrocytes may even help to repair the insulating sheaths of nerve cells in people with spinal injuries.
Because the fibres that connect nerve cells have fatty sheaths, the water in them can diffuse only along a fibre, not through the sheath.
The 40 muscles are attached to fine cables in sheaths, much like the brake cables on a bicycle, and these pass through the robotic wrist to operate the joints.The tactile sensors which take the place of nerve endings at the fingertips are even more advanced.
A new diagnostic technique, outlined at a recent conference of the Society for Neuroscience held in Miami Beach, may allow this to be done.The technique, invented by John Gabrieli and Torkel Klingberg of Stanford University, employs a trick known as diffusion tensor magnetic-resonance imaging (DTI) to look at the myelin sheaths that act as the insulation of nerve cells in the brain.
SCLERODERMA, which hardens the skin and then goes on to immobilise many of the body's internal organs, looks very different from multiple sclerosis, which cripples its victims by stripping away the protective sheaths of their nerve cells.
Embarrassed officials are now appealing to people carrying such ID cards to keep them safely tucked away in metal sheaths.
Geron plans to inject its oligodendrocytes into the damaged spines of patients between one and two weeks after their injury.Tests in rats, using human cells, have shown that oligodendrocytes injected this way can indeed help repair myelin sheaths and restore the ability of nerve cells to carry signals.
