Author: jlolds

Native Angeleno, professor of Neuroscience and Public Policy at George Mason University

Foundational ideas: Dan Dennett on the Mind…

From John Brockman’s The Edge, it’s here. Dan was one of the initial intellectual founders of the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Studies. Here is a long-piece interview with him on the very subject that is central to our research program: the human mind.

One idea that I agree with him about: the notion that our early notions of neurons as simple switching devices was vastly over-simplified. Dennett here calls them “little agents with an agenda”.

Read it all.

Odds and ends…

First, congrats to one our own, Rebekah Evans on her excellent editorial in this month’s Biological Bulletin, here.

Second, congrats to Dan Cox for his mentorship of young aspiring scientists–his high school intern Suhas Gondi from local Thomas Jefferson HS has been named both Intel and Siemens semifinalist for work conducted in his labs at Krasnow. The news was just announced yesterday and Suhas is one of only 9 from Virginia and 300 nationwide.

Third, congrats to colleague Monique Beaudoin on her new position as Associate Director at Office of Naval Research Global in London–that’s a great job, we wish her well.

Finally, I’m chairing the search for a new Vice President for Research and Economic Development at George Mason–the job announcement is here.  I’d welcome nominations or advice–just drop me a line.

A view of the self…

Kathryn Schulz’s excellent long essay on the master-theory of self-help is here. From her standpoint, the weakness in all self-help approaches is that they posit a dualism. I agree, because all our evidence from neuroscience suggests that brain and mind are unified…

Read it all.

Krasnow Institute PhD alumni wins ATT hackathon in Vegas!

Ruggero Scorcioni is one of our neuroscience PhD alumni. We’re proud of him for other reasons, but here’s his latest brilliant success: he’s the winner of the AT&T hacakthon in Vegas! The story is here. Money quote:

At 41, he has had plenty of time to research brain wave science as well as write computer programs. After receiving a degree in computer science in his native Italy, Scorcioni came to the U.S. 12 years ago to earn a PhD from George Mason University in Virginia in neuroscience.

Kudos to Ruggero and his thesis advisor Giorgio Ascoli!

Back in DC after a working weekend in San Francisco…

The Biological Bulletin held its editorial board meeting again this year at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Meeting. It was great to see some excellent talks and sit down to talk about the journal with my colleagues on the Board. There were some really great ideas for future virtual symposia and the possibility of inviting more junior level scientists to join the board in some capacity.

Meanwhile, I’m impressed lately with United Airlines. They really seem to have turned a corner since the merger with Continental. Flights were on-time and the service was excellent.

Bipartisanship in Science…

Daniel Sarewitz’s editorial in Nature is here. I completely agree with it. Money quote:

To connect scientific advice to bipartisanship would benefit political debate. Volatile issues, such as the regulation of environmental and public-health risks, often lead to accusations of ‘junk science’ from opposing sides. Politicians would find it more difficult to attack science endorsed by avowedly bipartisan groups of scientists, and more difficult to justify their policy preferences by scientific claims that were contradicted by bipartisan panels.

Happy New Year…Science not off the Hook

Happy 2013. The Fiscal Cliff compromise that was passed by Congress last night mainly addressed the tax (revenue) side of the fiscal debate between the Democrats and the GOP. The spending side of that debate was put of for a bit…as things stand science funding still will get axed across the board two months from now. With the tax leverage gone, the remaining hope is that somehow the NIH and NSF will get bundled into the debate over DOD such that they are all protected against across the board, mindless cuts. I’m not optimistic on that one, although historically NIH and NSF have enjoyed bipartisan support.

In the meantime, the notion of the need to prudently invest in science–as well as cut back generally–doesn’t seem to be out there as an argument.

Next up however is the second debt-ceiling debate. The House GOP members say they intend to use the debt limit as leverage to get more cuts. My economist colleagues tell me that is playing with fire.

The passing of a giant…

Rita Levi-Montalcini has died. Her NYT obit is here. She was a neuroscientist Nobel laureate whose discovery of Nerve Growth Factor helped shape the way we think about wiring up the nervous system during development. I had the honor of hearing her speak at the 1981 Society for Neuroscience meeting in Los Angeles–we graduate students were packed into the nose-bleed seats of the giant auditorium, but we hung on every word…

She will be missed.