as it relates to European history, story is here. The key concept is hedging against famine.
The piece is here. Of course the Krasnow Institute, while unmentioned in the article plays several roles in the full story, on both sides of DARPA’s SyNAPSE project and in some of our other efforts.
The key question is whether the reverse-engineering approach is viable…that is, can we build better computers by architecting them using biological brain-inspired approaches?
Those are the docks of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as I arrived yesterday by ferry. My office here at the MBL is on the opposite side of the Knorr, the large research vessel in the foreground.
Tomorrow, at the MBL Society Meeting, we’ll learn perhaps a bit more about the new affiliation between MBL and the University of Chicago. Ultimately, I’m anticipating it’ll involve some significant transfer of resources to the marine lab in return for a significant degree of control from the University. In any case, it represents a monumental change for the 125 year old MBL.
My take on the economy here is that it’s still in recovery mode. While Martha’s Vineyard was extremely busy, the local businesses (with one key exception) seem to be struggling.
It’s an annual trek for me as editor of the MBL‘s journal, The Biological Bulletin. I’m looking forward to some excellent science.
For curious readers, I fly directly from Washington to Martha’s Vineyard and then take the ferry to Woods Hole. From there it’s a few steps to the Woods Hole Inn, which I call home, when I’m there.
Bjorn Lomborg’s eloquent case for increased R&D on green energy sources, from the FT, here.
Money quote:
The analogy here is the computer in the 1950s. We did not get better computers by mass-producing subsidised vacuum tubes or taxing typewriters. The breakthroughs were achieved through a dramatic increase in R&D, leading to innovations such as the transistor and the integrated circuit, which enabled companies such as IBM and Apple to produce computers that consumers wanted.
The context is Selingo’s book, College Unbound. Stearns critique, which I agree with, is here.
More to the point, my sense is that the book is something of a polemic. And sad to say, that may be the way to gain notoriety these days. Which is not to say that there are many serious points in the book worthy of discussion–there are.
Out of Tonegawa’s research group at MIT. My colleague Earl Miller blog has good links to the original paper and science media stories about it, here.
I think it’s a real tour de force. They used optogenetics to essentially demonstrate the power of a cell assembly to represent an engram. Hebb would be proud.
Apparently the DTRA DNA grand challenge has run into scoring issues. The story from ScienceInsider is here. I still think this a terrific way to fund scientific and technological progress. As pointed out, putting together a successful grant application does not necessarily imply actual scientific success.
From the Spectator, here. I know at least one top flight neuroscientist who, early in his career, used to do the equivalent of air guitar….with a fountain pen.
In any case, the whole deal works for me…in the audience. I say keep them on.
Discoverers and Discoveries 