The Future of the Brain

Picower Institute for Learning and Memory held a major scientific symposium entitled “The Future of the Brain” on December 1^st , 2005. The symposium focused on the future of neuroscience research. MIT president Susan Hockfield opened the days discussion.

The morning session featured talks by five Nobel Laureates including Susumu Tonegawa, Director of Picower Institute, and James D Watson. The afternoon session entitled “Change your mind” focused on the impact of Neuroscience of learning and memory on human health. The second session in the afternoon entitled “Expand your Mind” looked at the relationship between the human brain and mind.

To find out more about this, read more in my blog The Conscious Mind / The Future of the Brain

3 Players, 2 Visions and 1 Destination

3 Players

Microsoft, Sun, Google

2 Visions

Microsoft – A Desktop (Computer) in every home.

Sun Microsystems – Network is the Computer

Microsoft’s vision of ‘A Desktop in every home’ has helped the spread of internet and its economy which is considered around $100 billion dollars (The Search by John Battelle). This indirectly helped to realize the vision of Sun Microsystems ‘Network is the computer’. Sun Microsystem's Java platform, fast tracked the internet software development (Web site / portal development using Java technologies like servlets, enterprise java beans etc) which helped the normal users to get more value out of internet and letting it being part of their daily life.

Most of the computing for the common person revolves around the web browser and it became the interface to giant network (or should we say the Computer) called internet.

What did Google do over here?

To find out more about this, read more in my new blog Java and Technology / 3 Players, 2 Visions and 1 Destination

Neuroscientists break code on sight

By Cathryn M. Delude, MIT News Office Correspondent, November 3, 2005

In the sci-fi movie "The Matrix," a cable running from a computer into Neo's brain writes in visual perceptions, and Neo's brain can manipulate the computer-created world. In reality, scientists cannot interact directly with the brain because they do not understand enough about how it codes and decodes information.

To find out more about this, read more in my blog The Conscious Mind / Neuroscientists break code on sight

Consciousness and Mathematics

What makes us different from other species (birds, animals, insects, fish etc)?

Is it the look and feel or the intelligence or the ability to adapt the environment to suite our needs rather than adapting to the environment?

The answer lies in one single word.

To find out more about this, read more in my blog The Conscious Mind / Consciousness and Mathematics

10th Planet - UB313

Astronomers discovered the 10th Planet of our Solar System. Neptune was discovered in 1846 and Pluto in 1930. Astronomers named this object UB313 (granted automatically according to the IAU – International Astronomical Union’s naming protocols for minor planets) which is larger than Pluto and has a moon.

To find out more about this, read more in my blog Particle Physics / 10th Planet – UB313

Land of Straight Lines and Beginning of Time

The Land of Straight lines.

There is a strange planet called straightnet somewhere in the Andromeda galaxy. So, what is so strange or special about it? The land (planet) is build upon objects with straight lines. Which means the planet is a big rectangular land. They play the soccer with a cubes and rugby with rectangular boxes instead of a spherical objects, their body, trees, roads, animals everything is build using straight lines.

Now, try to ask straight-lander’s the following questions.

1. How do you explain to them about something in spherical shape (soccer ball, volley ball etc)?
2. Can they think about an object which does not have edges?
3. How do you tell them there is a specific shape where you can’t specify the center of the object (on the surface)?

To find out more about this, read more in my blog The Conscious Mind / Land of Straight lines and Beginning of Time

Physics 2005 - Celebrating 100 years

Year 2005, celebrating the 100 years of Einstein’s miraculous year 1905. 100 years ago in the month of September 1905 Einstein gave the final equation to the world – The most famous equation E = mc².

Here are the two complimentary lectures by Prof Richard Wolfson Ph.D, Middlebury College on Albert Einstein's miraculous year 1905 (presented by the Teaching Company).

To find out more about this, read more in my blog Particle Physics / Physics 2005 – Celebrating 100 years

How deep is the rabbit hole?

Consider the following experiment

Imagine your brain is hooked for a neural scan. An object is shown to you and the neural behavior is recorded. Then you are asked to remember the same object and the doctors recorded the neural behavior again.

Now the most interesting case over here is, neural behaviors were same when you saw the object (using your eyes) and when you remembered the object (neural behavior will be same even if you remember it in your dreams).

So, what is the role of eyes then? Why is the neural behavior same when the input came from two different sources?

To find out more about this, read more in my blog The Conscious Mind / How deep is the rabbit hole?

on God, Heaven & Hell

On God, Creation & Science

- I do not believe in the current concept of God and Creation.

The theory of Big Bang was a big leap in understanding the origin of the universe. However, like the concept of God Created this universe, Big Bang theory produced another big question, what happened before Big Bang? One of the reason I liked the cyclic model instead of Big Bang in the standard model is the infinite big bang by the collision of two membranes (a scientific hypothesis now). This does not mean that the standard model is wrong. New hypothetical cyclic model is an extension of standard model. Extra dimensions and colliding universes are the by by-product of String theory which is gaining momentum in unifying the theory of relativity and quantum theory. I like to know internals on how and why rather than believe anything just by ‘faith’.

- I do not believe that science and religion are on warpath (I mean does not have conflicts of interest).

To find out more about this, read more in my blog The Conscious Mind / On God, Heaven and Hell

Niagara Falls, New York

American Falls, Niagara, New York

Scenic Drive - Pennsylvania Route 6

If you are driving from New York, Connecticut or New Jersey the usual route is Route I-81 N and Route I-90 W.

To find out more about this, read more in my blog My Travel / Niagara Falls, New York

Howe Caverns, New York

Howe Caverns

255 Discovery Drive,Howes Cave, NY 12092

Scenic Drive - Total 76+ miles (map)

To find out more about this, read more in my blog My Travel / Howe Caverns, New York

Epilogue (The Journey)

“The sun shinning bright, the shadows were small. The horses circled around him. They saw two marks on his foot”.

Those marks were from the black cobra. The Cobra bit him. Now if you read the story (Blog - The Journey) carefully you will find the following three elements towards the end.

To find out more about this, read more in my blog Arts and Literature / Epilogue (The Journey)

The Journey

He searched for the roots of the heartfelt cry, wandering across the forest he found kids scared and lost. He gave them his food, and realized that their destination is not his. However, he decided to change his plans or his destiny. He felt guiding the kids, to their destination were his karma. He turned and took the narrow path through the thick herbs.

The moment he took the first step, he felt something heavy on his shoulder, and the weight kept on increasing and it almost forced him onto his knees. Then he heard a voice. He does not know whether it came from his soul or from the darkness around him and he had a choice to make.

To find out more about this, read more in my blog Arts and Literature / The Journey

Camping in Virginia

Our first camping

Being on Top of the World

How do you feel when you reach on top of the Mount Everest? You feel like you conquered the world isn’t it. Now consider the following scenarios.

Once you are at the top, you feel excited and tired (at the same time) but you will have the satisfaction of achieving something extra ordinary.

However, if you really look back and see what was more exciting?

1. Being on top of the Mount Everest in freezing cold and all alone at the top.

OR

2. The stiff challenges it (Everest) thrown at you on your way up.

To find out more about this, read more in my blog Arts and Literature / Being on Top of the World