This is a really interesting article about new trends in Engineering Schools.
Money quote:
A major thrust of that effort will be mixing courses from the oft-derided “soft sciences” like sociology and economics, as well as law and design, into engineering students’ academic load.
Sounds a lot like Krasnow’s Center for Social Complexity.
Jim
Mark Hallet’s money quote:
This paper has theoretical importance since it identifies a brain region possibly responsible for “free won’t”, the process that Benjamin Libet proposed to allow there to be “free will” even though the brain prepares to make movement prior to a person’s being aware that this is happening.
Cnet covers it all (click the link).
Krasnow has covered this waterfront before. Advisory Board member Bill Nitze sponsored a conference on the ethics and strong AI several years ago.
But, are we close to strong AI? I think I’m a bit skeptical of that.
Jim
I’ll be joining Ron Brachman (VP-Worldwide Research operations at Yahoo) and Ernst Volgenau (Chairman SRA International) to talk about the current applications, latest trends and business opportunities in business intelligence for marketing, risk management, fraud prevention and homeland security at Maggiano’s in Tysons Corner on September 12 from 7:30 to 9:45 a.m.
You can register here.
Jim
Diana Rhoten’s very perceptive piece in today’s Chronicle of Higher Education (on-line) really has it spot on about changes in the way science is being done here.
Money quote:
But Networked Science takes that idea a step further, using cyberinfrastructure to create a virtual hallway in which the doorways — wide enough to accommodate all the scientists who want to pass through — lead to labs and offices containing every discipline under the sun. By providing that space, unachievable in the physical world, being virtual can actually surpass being there.
Jim
From PLoS via today’s Financial Times: Craig Venter’s genome revealed.
Money quote:
The study, carried out at his J. Craig Venter Institute in Maryland, shows that Dr Venter carries genes that may predispose him to Alzheimer’s and heart disease, novelty seeking behaviour and a preference for evening rather than morning activity. Never before has anyone revealed so much personal information in a scientific paper.
A reader from Washington State read my entry regarding Orcas at Lime Kiln Park on San Juan Island and reminded me of how amazing the Pacific Northwest really is. I was reminded by the reader, that the Hoh rainforest (another place I’ve visited) is another piece of the natural jig saw puzzle that makes that part of North America both unique and very much worth protecting.
Which brings up the notion of human brains acting in a stewardship role with regards to the rest of the natural biosphere while at the same time being an integral part. Sounds pretty difficult to me–and that may be at the nub of our current environmental challenges.
As I look out from my mountain top, north up the vast Shenandoah Valley, watching the bald eagles fly by, I keep coming back to the question of how an intelligent brain that has, over the course of time, developed the means to effect vast changes on the planet’s complex and dynamical systems, might get “too smart” for its own good. It’s worrisome, especially for a scientist, where the basic idea is to acquire new knowledge about nature.
Jim
I’m blogging from the Great Apes Trust of Iowa. This morning, I got to watch Kanzi, a bonobo, demonstrate really quite incredible language skills, using symbolic touch screens. But for me, far more arresting is eye-to-eye contact with an ape. It’s very hard to put into the written word just what that feeling is like–my sense is that for a brain scientist that contact is qualitatively different: you have two intelligent creatures with different brains reaching out across the species divide. It reminds me of another time, long ago, when I had the experience of meeting up with a wild male orca (killer whale) on a rocky outcropping of San Juan Island near Friday Harbor Labs. Big big intelligent eye, small very vulnerable human not wanting to be dinner.
Jim
Today for my graduate class, we spent some time talking about the notion of a lab’s culture. I spent the first 1/2 of the class giving vignettes of some of the many labs I’ve been a member or close observer of. We spent the second half of the class in group discussion about which of the described labs was best for a grad student and which was best for the PI or lab chief. It was a very interesting and disparate set of answers.
What is lab culture? What defines the labs with really good cultures? I think it’s an open question.
From my perspective, it certainly involves a commitment to do excellent science. It probably also requires the ability to deliver on that commitment across the group. But also requires a certain tolerance for differences, for pressure and a certain group sense of humor that can bring the group together in a cohesive way that energizes the science.
Jim
Tomorrow I’m off to the Great Ape Trust of Iowa as a member of its Science Advisory Board. Above is an article from today’s NY Times on one of the risks of being a primatologist–at least in Brazil. I’m always concerned when scholars are locked up by governments–and sixteen years in the case seems egregious.
Jim
