My student passed his defense with flying colors today. Kudos to him on a major achievement. Now (actually following the various bureaucratic forms that must be filed) he joins the world of neuroscientists, his “union card” in hand. And yet, the challenges ahead for him, and the other newly minted science PhD’s are substantial. First to find a rewarding post-doctoral fellowship and a new mentor, and subsequently to begin to formulate scientific “independence”–something that is hard to define, but that we all know when we see it.

Jim

Tomorrow one of my students will defend his dissertation and hopefully transition to the community of doctoral scholars. I’m looking forward to it. Thinking back on his thesis work with me, my mind goes back to the project he was working on at the beginning of his pilgrim’s progress and how massively it has evolved over the course of the work. That’s the nature of science, you can’t predict how it will play out. How one experiment that doesn’t work leads to a new experiment that does, but gives you a totally unexpected result and forces you to change directions.

Which bring me to the topic of management style. How is one to manage science given the challenges predicting course? Should we look to the strategy of the day-trader or alternatively play science as one might play poker (it doesn’t matter if you have the best hand as long as you win what’s in the pot). I reject both of these approaches. It seems to me that the best management is that which creates an environment that is likely to produce some successes (think bacterial cultures on an agar plate). And then, I would suggest to step back and watch the experiment unfold. Unfortunately that’s very difficult.

Jim

Bottom line: you can now visualize the expression of proteins across the mouse brain.

Jim

It’s been a couple of days to get things moving again after the storm, but we’re making progress. At the same time, I managed to screw up my home directory on my macbook, so I spent much of yesterday reconstructing the account–which is now fine. So there are a couple of fine excuses for the sparseness of posting.

It has been extremely busy however. We’re working on a reconfiguration for the various neuroscience programs that will put the Krasnow Institute in a more central role academically. At the same time we’re now preparing to make offers in our three faculty searches. All of this has been going on the last 48hrs using Treos, Blackberries and home networks–we’re not very good at dealing with the winter weather here in Washington.

Jim

We're getting one of the mid-Atlantic's typical weather events today: a combination of various winter precipitation mixtures that is a result of having an ambient temperature of right around freezing. Worst case and everything turns to ice, the power goes out for several days and cars spin like pin-wheels. Best case, it stays all rain, albeit the very cold miserable variety. Middle case, we get several inches of snow. Impossible to tell right now, but I'll be working from home today.

Which will give me time to read some articles and necessary time to work on a very complicated budget for next academic year.

Jim

It’s behind their subscription wall, but you can just go out and pick up a copy of The New Yorker at your local newsstand: Larissa MacFarquhar’s wonderful profile of Patricia and Paul Churchland (a marriage devoted to the mind-body problem).

In the meantime, a reminder that Patricia will be at Krasnow in May for the “Decade of the Mind” symposium.

Jim

Just a heads up that I’ll have some major positive announcements over the next four weeks or so. Official word will go out by email, but I’ll be commenting extensively here.

Jim

This is a photo of my beagle: I spend a lot of down time trying to figure out whether he has higher cognition.

I’ve always been quite interested in Einstein’s biography. Some new primary material is now available (click on the link): letters from 1915 when he was working on the general theory of relativity.

Jim

Former Harvard President Lawrence Summers has a very interesting Op-Ed in today’s Financial Times. It’s a link that’s open to subscribers only, but here’s the money quote:

If the 20th century was defined by developments in the physical sciences, the 21st century will be defined by developments in the life sciences….Life science approaches will lead to everything from further agricultural revolutions to profound changes in energy technology and the development of new materials. The “drugs that help you study” that are now pervasive on college campuses are just a precursor of developments that will make it possible to alter human capacities and human natures in profound ways.

Summers may have lost his job at Harvard, but he sure hasn’t lost his intellectual edge. I think he’s spot on here.

Jim