[-empyre-] thinking systems

[trish adams]

Hi everyone,

I have just been re-reading Barbara's intoductory post. (Oh to be so
coherent & lucid when jet-lagged!). I am particularly drawn to her
early remark: ' the problem of identifying what i called some of the
enduring questions, the ones that dont ever seem to go away, the ones
that stretch back in time & forward to now' - this resonates with my
own interest in the historical perspectives of scientific research and
their relationships to the contemporary laboratory context and our
attempts to understand our "humanness" - and, co-incidentally, with
the book i am currently reading by Richard Holmes: "The Age of
Wonder". As i see it it's an acknowledgement of the 'whole body
research' that Barbara mentions and the senses as in "sensual
readings" of scientific data too.

With regard to the mention of brain plasticity & difficulties that may
arise from early specialisation in a still evolving field I think
Queensland Brain Institute have made an attempt to address this by
creating the umbrella "Thinking Systems" project, for which they
received a large ARC grant. The purpose  being to draw the major
groups together (utopian perhaps??) for discussion & interaction.

For my latest bee post! - yesterday the honey bees were being trained
to fly through a long aerial tunnel which has strips of randomly
spotted vinyl on the floor & sides. (Picture:
http://mellifera.cc/2008/08/22/the-bee-house-officially-opens/  )
These are on rollers and, when switched on, rotate at differing
speeds. Yet another way to test honey bee navigational capacities.
Some of this research has potential for unmanned, low flying vehicles
and is re-interpreted by the computer technicians in the robotics area
at Professor Srinivasan's group.

Cheers, Trish

-- 
Dr. Trish Adams
Artist-in-Residence Visual & Sensory Neuroscience Group,
http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/page=52793
Queensland Brain Institute
The University of Queensland.
 http://mellifera.cc
http:www.wavewriter.net