Daniel Glaser work

Chrisopher Wren brain imaging

2011-09-19T04:24:00.004+01:00

Here is a link to an image Christopher Wren made in the 1660s of the anatomy of the brain which beautifully illustrates the system of blood supply now know as the Circle of Willis after Thomas Willis who wrote the book Cerebri anatome of 1664.

Twin science

2011-09-18T22:36:00.003+01:00

Looking at the story of the conjoined twins who have been successfully separated. You can read about the circle of Willis and Christopher Wren here and some of the stuff about how we use our own bodies to read out the movements of others on a thing I did at Nova as part of a sequence on mirror neurons. There's been an interesting show about the historical portrayal of conjoined twins. Finally there's a lot out there about music and culture and here's good starting point about children.

Links to what we've been up to

2011-09-18T21:54:00.003+01:00

The special projects team I head at Wellcome Trust have been busy over the summer. Biggest thing is probably the olympic-related experiment for every school child in Britain. We've also been getting dirty at Glastonbury (or in slightly more poetic form in this video). We run broadcast projects of various kinds and drive engagement with health research in developing countries. An overview of the whole topic can be found here.

Slightly irreverent talk about the brain and education

2011-09-18T21:54:00.000+01:00

The nice people at sameas have posted a link to a talk I gave in a pub about what neuroscience should or shouldn't tell us about education. (Contains no more bad language than you'd expect from a talk in a pub.)

Video of Battle of Ideas

2011-03-03T21:24:00.000Z

The nice folk at worldbytes.org have just posted some video of a rather engaging debate I was part of at Battle of Ideas last year. It was about the limits of science and featured Mark Henderson, Tim Parks, David Perks, Simon Wessely. http://www.worldbytes.org/what-science-can-and-cannot-tell-us/ and the original is at http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/2010/session_detail/4087/

Packed Lunch podcast - Wellcome Collection

2010-06-06T21:38:00.000+01:00

Podcasts from previous Packed Lunch discussions I've chaired at Wellcome are on the website. The next one is about Life on Mars and is at Wellcome Collection on Friday 11th June at 1pm.

Background references for Forum discussion

2010-06-06T18:59:00.002+01:00

As part of The Forum on BBC WS this week http://goo.gl/rdwc (@TheForumBBC) I referred to some brain research I did a few years ago, and I thought I would put in some pointers. The work was conducted with Beatriz Calvo-Merino, Julie Grezes, Patrick Haggard and Richard Passingham at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in UCL. We collaborated with a choreographer Tom Sapsford. There is a very clear piece of video and supporting material explaining some of the background on mirror neurons at Nova ScienceNow And here are two key professional publications describing this work

Action observation and acquired motor skills: an FMRI study with expert dancers. Calvo-Merino B, Glaser DE, Grezes J, Passingham RE, Haggard P Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) [2005, 15(8):1243-9] (Full text)
Seeing or doing? Influence of visual and motor familiarity in action observation. Calvo-Merino B, Grèzes J, Glaser DE, Passingham RE, Haggard P Current Biology [2006, 16(19):1905-10] (Abstract)

Perfectibility of the Body | Southbank Centre.

2010-06-06T14:01:00.000+01:00

I've put together a rather fab event Perfectibility of the Body at the Purcell Room with Alison Lapper and Michael Horovitz on 3rd July. It's curated with my friend Ken Arnold and is part of the Royal Society 350th at the South Bank. There are a couple of others that day with Mark Lythgoe and Mark Miodownik.

Now Blogpress

2010-04-23T14:07:00.000+01:00

Trying to work out if my iPhone twittering can survive the upgrade. What about links?

Convergence

2010-04-23T13:42:00.002+01:00

Having let the blog slip I'm trying twitterfeed as a way of lifting and (yet) separating perfectly. If you get that reference you have an old and potentially smutty mind ;-)

Google maps mashup of fMRI data sharing use

2009-09-04T15:34:00.000+01:00

From my friend Alumit's pioneering data sharing experiment VanHorn&Ishai_2007.pdf (application/pdf Object) A Google Maps API (http://www.google.com/apis/maps/) plot of locations in the USA and Canada to which one or more complete fMRI study data sets from the fMRIDC archive were delivered. The online maps itself can be viewed at http://www.fmridc.org/google maps/async.html.

Rhyme and the Reason of Data Sharing

2009-09-04T15:19:00.000+01:00

Rhyme and the Reason of Data Sharing: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS): "Why share? As exemplified in the 'success stories' of data sharing and reuse presented above, there are multiple compelling reasons to share data. These include the following: (1) Many datasets contain far more information than a single laboratory has the time and/or expertise to extract from them. (2) A single data set can often answer many more questions than those that motivated its initial collection. (3) Reuse is cost-effective, particularly for datasets that are expensive and labor-intensive to collect. (4) Sharing promotes collaboration among scientists who might not otherwise interact, and thus has the potential to generate particularly novel hypotheses."

Getting interested in science commons

2009-09-04T13:32:00.003+01:00

A cool quote

the value of cultural openness was understood centuries ago by many of the founders of modern science; indeed, the journal system is perhaps the most open system for the transmission of knowledge that could be built with 17th-century media. The adoption of the journal system was achieved by subsidizing scientists who published their discoveries in journals. This same subsidy now inhibits the adoption of more effective technologies, because it continues to incentivize scientists to share their work in conventional journals and not in more modern media.

from Doing science in the open

Online networking tools are pervasive, but why have scientists been so slow to adopt many of them? Michael Nielsen explains how we can build a better culture of online collaboration

The Photographers' Gallery | Café Scientifique: The Hymn of the Mind

2009-05-11T21:25:00.000+01:00

The Photographers' Gallery | Café Scientifique: The Hymn of the Mind I'll be chairing tomorrow night. It's with Lauren Stewart about how the brain processes music.

Interior Traces

2009-05-05T22:06:00.000+01:00

Interior Traces is a Wellcome-funded project which, by coincidence, I'm chairing a session for tomorrow night.

To Score High, Don’t Cover Your Mouth - NYTimes.com

2009-05-05T20:53:00.000+01:00

To Score High, Don’t Cover Your Mouth - NYTimes.com New York Times have picked up on the www.routesgame.com Sneeze Game with a slightly weird angle. It's traversing the blogs too. Is it irresponsible to encourage children to sneeze? No, we're just getting them to think about the consequences.

Material World on Brain Imaging

2009-04-14T10:59:00.002+01:00

Part of the new 'topical' format for Material World on BBC Radio 4. I was part of a discussion on the uses and limits of brain imaging with my old mate Geraint Rees. This more issues-based rather than news-based format (although I don't think that's how its supposed to be seen) may take time to bed in, but potentially is a good platform for a more sceptical and discursive engagement. Our discussion starts about half way through the podcast or iPlayer record.

Autism and Talent at the Royal Society

2009-04-14T10:54:00.001+01:00

And while we're playing catchup, a rather more conventional but no less enjoyable chair at the Royal Society on Talent and Autism. Video also available for those with more bandwidth than sense.

Creative Brains at Tate Modern

2009-04-14T10:51:00.002+01:00

I chaired this somewhat eclectic and politically charged event involving some brain science around creativity and some sticking of a near-plastecine substance on to the windows of Tate Modern. Fetching pictures (of the creative effusions) have been posted.

Peer review of Great Sperm Race

2009-03-23T11:11:00.001Z

I am a great believer in peer review, and I'm really pleased that we have published the scientific treatment for The Great Sperm Race on Channel 4. We commissioned this as part of the development process in the run-up to our decision to part-fund the programme. It enabled us to canvass scientific opinions on the scientific content separate from the conceptual treatment. We've included the reviewers' comments as part of the document and I hope this will give a clear insight into the process.

Great Plant Hunt freebies - UK's biggest science project

2009-02-28T22:08:00.000Z

Great Plant Hunt freebies - UK's biggest science project more links to Great Plant Hunt. Interesting when written pieces are recycled as quotes.

American Ballet Theater - Dance - New York Times

2009-02-28T21:48:00.000Z

American Ballet Theater - Dance - New York Times is a piece I've just rediscovered from a couple of years ago about the dance thing.

This is Your Brain on Dance

2009-02-28T21:44:00.001Z

This is Your Brain on Dance

Posted using ShareThis

BBC World Service - Science in Action

2009-02-27T14:49:00.000Z

BBC World Service - Science in Action had me on today in the role of 'presenter's friend'. It's a fun gig just riffing off whatever stories they have on. There was a preponderance of brain stuff, but in some ways it's easier to comment on stuff that's further from your expertise. Podcast etc available from link above.

LRB · John Lanchester: Is it Art?

2009-02-20T15:50:00.000Z

LRB · John Lanchester: Is it Art? is a super piece which considers gaming's position in high and popular culture. Thanks to my sister for recommendation.

And Darwin stuff

2009-02-07T21:54:00.003Z

The biggest self-contained project we're currently engaged in. It's all summarised here. There are a bunch of strands. The biggest are experiments for every school in Britain. The primary school ones are delivered by Kew Gardens and entitled the Great Plant Hunt. For secondary we've had to do it ourselves, and the project is called Survival Rivals. We've got an alternate reality game with Channel 4 called Routes which has some material about genetic testing and a mysterious backstory which I'm still finding out about. I was really pleased we commissioned the animated tree of life for David Attenborough's BBC1 special. There's poetry and all sorts to come.

Ongoing at Wellcome

2009-02-07T21:44:00.004Z

We're doing a lot with broadcast and building up researcher support within the team. We're also working to integrate international public engagement with our activities.

The Photographers' Gallery | Café Scientifique:

2009-02-07T21:38:00.000Z

The Photographers' Gallery | Café Scientifique: I still co-run the London Cafe Scientifique with Ashish Ranpura. Topics vary, usually riffing off the pictures being exhibited at the time.

An update on the lack of updates

2009-02-07T21:22:00.003Z

Probably spreading myself a bit thin online. Wellcome projects are generally quite corporate in their delivery style so not so much opportunity for chatting about them informally. I've been Facebooking but I keep that quite personal in a way. And recently more Twitter which I still haven't pinned down in my social head. There's something odd about the asymmetry of following people who don't know you, and I still get confused about when to status update on FB and when to twitter. In any case I'll do a quick set of posts on things I've been proud of recently just to keep things a bit fresh here too.

422 South | The Tree of Life

2008-06-12T18:21:00.000+01:00

We're looking at many different versions which have been done before. Here's one commissioned from Bristol-based 422 South for Yale's Peabody Museum.

Flytol on the road

2008-06-12T18:14:00.000+01:00

Blogging from the Agassiz Room in Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology with the Encyclopedia of Life crew looking at trees.

Eels have spines

2008-05-30T16:42:00.003+01:00

It's funny how when you spot a glitch in a presentation it can take on horrible proportions. Watching back my neuroscience explanantion for the Kavli prize I note that I say that eels don't have spines. I think I must have meant legs, but who knows? An old professor of mine at Cambridge was always keen to point out the difference between an error and a slip. I think the distinction is about what might reasonably have been in your head as opposed to your mouth.

Kavli Prizes

2008-05-29T13:36:00.001+01:00

I've just got back from Oslo where I organised and chaired the announcement of the Kavli Prizes, new Nobel-like million dollar awards in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. If you've nothing better to do, you could read about the prizes or watch the webcast including some badinage with Alan Alda (yes, that Alan Alda).

Under Laboratory Conditions on YouTube

2008-04-09T23:13:00.000+01:00

If you missed Under Laboratory Conditions when it broadcast on BBC4 someone has uploaded the entire series onto YouTube. Gratifying.

Wellcome's world

2007-07-27T12:26:00.000+01:00

Who was this Wellcome guy, anyway? Our redoubtable archivist Ross MacFarlane takes up the story.

Coffee cam, bento and lettuces

2007-06-22T11:17:00.000+01:00

Once again at lunch yesterday reminded of the banal fascination of actuality which the web does so well. A colleague uses her facebook page to document the development of her home-grown lettuces. She is currently entranced by a japanese mother who visually blogs her son's bento box every morning. My friend Opher has given his newborn a blog already and it's true that this does address the regret I feel at not being there with him for his first encumbered outings. Of course it did all start with Coffee cam and I sometimes feel hasn't strayed far.

Shadows and light

2007-06-22T10:14:00.000+01:00

A rather lovely musing by Margaret Wertheim in the NYTimes about whether shadows can move faster than the speed of light. I first met Margaret at AAAS in San Francisco earlier this year where she gave a passionate and practical guide to public involvement in science. It was one of those funny moments where you remember that actually the US is still, occasionally very different from UK. It's the same issue as there not being Science Week there. I haven't really got to the bottom of it but I think it's something about the way that authority works. I always these days describe Cafe Scientifique in terms of Habermas and "knowledge without power". (Actually googling that makes it look like most people think that's impossible so maybe I should write it down.) She runs the Institute for Figuring in LA, and as a hobby she crochets coral reefs.

Apeldoorn Conference 2007

2007-06-09T13:58:00.000+01:00

I was at the Apeldoorn Conference again last weekend. It's an amazingly illustrious gathering which picks a contemporary global issue and then chews it over with opinion formers, journalists, politicians and captains of industry. It was founded by Wim Kok and Tony Blair a few years ago and has the additional goal of strengthening UK/Holland links. My father's father was dutch, and, strangely, a cousin, Felix Rottenberg was leader of the Dutch Labour Party (I've never met him). The first year I went I lead a workshop on public trust in science which partly gave rise to the Counterpoints chapter on that. Two memorable moments (both unattributable under the Chatham House Rule): in the summing up, one of the organisers was asked about dissemination, and replied that although there was a conference report being written that would be published on the web and so on, the principal route was just the fact that so many influential people were present. At the Trust we worry about the impact of some of, say, the education research we commission; I like the idea that no further efforts are required if so many of the people who can make a difference are in the room already. Secondly, there was a thrill from getting stuff straight from the source: for example there was a discussion on China's role in climate change, and one of the participants had been sent by Tony Blair to offer the chinese the chance to join the G8 in return for some carbon targets; oddly it didn't feel like oneupmanship, just relevant background. The redoubtable Norman Geras has been blogging about the conference too.

Café Scientifique. Is Homo Sapiens Just Another Animal?

2007-05-20T18:05:00.000+01:00

Thursday 24 May, 6.30 - 8.00 PM Café Scientifique. Is Homo Sapiens Just Another Animal at BelowZero, 31 - 33 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BN Entrance Free. Join this fascinating public debate about the nature of Man. Café Scientifique is a forum for debating science issues and a place where everyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology over a drink. Speakers: Professor Steve Jones, Department of Biology, University College London. Steve Jones is Professor of Genetics at Galton Laboratory. He is a television presenter and a prize-winning author on the subject of biology and evolution. Through his many broadcasts on radio and television, his lectures, popular science books and his regular science column in The Daily Telegraph Professor Jones promotes the public understanding of science in areas such as human evolution and variation, race, sex, inherited disease and genetic manipulation. Associate Professor Klas Kullander, Department of Neuroscience, Biomedical Centre, Uppsala, Sweden. Klas Kullander heads the Unit for Developmental Genetics at the Department of Neuroscience where he studies the function and development of the nervous system. In other words, he is interested in how the brain works and how it is formed. The research group is based in Uppsala, where Carl Linnaeus lived and worked. Kullander won the prestigious Fernström Prize for successful young researchers in 2006. Facilitated by Dr Daniel Glaser, The Wellcome Trust. Dr Glaser is development manager in public engagement at the Wellcome Trust. He comes from a neuroscience background, was the first 'Scientist in Residence' at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), has presented a television series for the BBC and co-chairs Café Scientifique at the Photographers' Gallery. The debate, which is held outside a traditional academic context, is open\nto the public and the entrance is free. "http://www.belowzerolondon.com/\" The debate, which is held outside a traditional academic context, is open to the public and the entrance is free. Both events are organised by the Embassy of Sweden in London as part of the 2007 Linnaeus tercentenary.

Google analytics

2007-05-20T13:51:00.000+01:00

Just started using the google analytics thing for my website and blog. It's a lot like making sure people have both your phone numbers so you can wait for two phones not to ring.

Café Scientifique: "Beauty and the Brain"

2007-05-14T19:48:00.000+01:00

Café Scientifique: "Beauty and the Brain" With fabby Chris McManus (just elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences) at Photographers' Gallery this Tuesday.

Job vacancy

2007-03-27T14:54:00.000+01:00

We have a post available as maternity cover for an Education Project Manager in Public Engagement here at the Wellcome Trust. Please have a look and feel free to forward it as appopriate.

Cafe sci: Wolpert on Belief

2007-03-26T14:41:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow night (27th March) at the Photographers' Gallery as usual. Ashish Ranpura will be chairing.

Nature Network

2007-03-20T21:04:00.000Z

Nature Network is an online experiment which tries to combine online and geographical networks. It's kind of a curious concept, although the editor used to do the truly superior (and much missed) science listings in londonist.com

The European Science Communication Network

2007-03-13T22:11:00.000Z

The European Science Communication Network is run by Steve Miller at UCL and is an exciting collection of science communication training for scientists (not those looking for an escape from science.

Web pages for researchers

2007-01-31T10:11:00.000Z

Chris Stock in the team has produced a very useful set of pages for researchers who are interested in doing public engagement. Although it's primarily aimed at Wellcome funded scientists, a lot of what's there is more generally relevant. Click to http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/researcherspe/

Andrew Jaffe: Imperial College Astrophysics

2007-01-15T19:43:00.000Z

is our guest's website. Like his blog.

Cafe sci on the universe

2007-01-15T17:28:00.000Z

As usual, last minute post for tomorrow's Cafe Sci at Photographers' Gallery.

Ivar Hagendoorn

2006-11-10T14:56:00.000Z

I was just reminding myself how brilliant this philospher is. I have for a while thought that we enjoy aesthetically things which are familiar but not too familiar - a really foreign dance performance is imprenetrable, but it is oftne hard for professional ballet dancers to simply enjoy going to the ballet. This may be instantiated in the brain as a partial perceptual resonance. As Hagendoorn has it

"It is precisely because the brain cannot form an adequate representation of the images that fall on the retina or because the object appears out of context, that it summons a chain of associations."

This is perhaps the power of art, and perhaps also a version of what the Russian formalists thought of as defamiliarization. Rereading after a gap of a few months, I am struck anew at how smart his Journal of Consciousness Studies piece is.

Beyond two cultures: The science of creativity

2006-11-08T18:10:00.000Z

Beyond two cultures: The science of creativity Once more round the block, at the Royal Academy of Music.

Munich Talk

2006-10-23T10:45:00.000+01:00

Munich Talk rather daringly I'm blogging from the back of a lecture theatre from where I'm about to give a talk for the British Council on Trusting Scientists. It's part of Munich Science Days and the audience (for the talk before mine anyway) are being given a very technical introduction to how a GPS system works. Follow that.

AAAS

2006-09-04T11:49:00.000+01:00

I am considering going to the AAAS conference in February. Any thoughts on its usefulness to get a sense of what's going on in the public engagement field from a professional perspective?

Cafe sci on flammability

2006-09-04T11:07:00.000+01:00

I thought you might be interested in a café scientifique I'm chairing this Tuesday night with the fabulous Dr Mark Miodownik from Kings on "Incendiary Materials". It's at 7pm (Tuesday 5 September) at the Photographers' Gallery 5 & 8 Great Newport Street London WC2H 7HY, just behind Leicester Square tube. Tickets via http://www.photonet.org.uk/ or on the door, do tell your friends.

Corporality

2006-09-04T11:02:00.000+01:00

Having been at Wellcome now for 3 months, it feels like I could begin to put my head above the parapet. One way of describing what's interesting about the being here rather than at UCL is that, for public engagement activity, I feel I have switched from being an amateur to being a professional. That is about procedures, credit, facilities but also responsibility. One of the things I'll have to be working about is the way a personal blog fits in to that process. Any other corporate heads out there got some tips?

LabLit.com article

2006-04-25T21:38:00.000+01:00

There's an interview about Under Laboratory Conditions on LabLit.com

Blue Sky Flowers

2006-04-22T10:11:00.000+01:00

Blue Sky Flowers (If you'll forgive my petit bourgeois smugness) Liz, our lovely garden designer, has a charming picture of our garden on her website. It's the rightmost inset.

Imperfect Mirrors

2006-04-17T20:57:00.000+01:00

Imperfect Mirrors is cafe scientifique on left and right handedness. It's at the photographers' gallery tomorrow (Tuesday) at 7pm. My colleague Ashish Ranpura is chairing.

Neo-phrenology?

2006-04-07T11:27:00.000+01:00

I've always claimed that the thing that really let the phrenologists down was their statistics. There is increasing evidence to back up the original claim, although not perhaps about the shape of the *outside* of the head. Commenting on her nice new research on language "Dr Narly Golestani from UCL's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience said 'The bigger picture is that we are starting to understand that brain shape and structure can be informative about people's abilities or pathologies - why people are good at some things and not others is evident from these scans.'"

Wellcome Wellcome

2006-04-07T10:07:00.000+01:00

So, after 15 odd years it's finally happened. I'm leaving active research science and moving to active science engagement. I'm going to be leaving UCL to manage part of the Public engagement development group at the Wellcome Trust, starting at the beginning of June. Gulp.

Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition 2006

2006-04-05T12:44:00.000+01:00

Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition 2006 boasts a particularly high-class line-up.

Sync Mac Smartphone

2006-04-02T13:21:00.000+01:00

My father just got a rather cool smartphone as a birthday present. Two things for interest. Firstly, it turns out there are options for him as a mac user to sync his Windows PC phone. Two comparative reviews are here and here. They both prefer Missing Sync over Pocket Mac, although I kind of like the underdog. The other weird thing is trying to work out what kind of phone he's actually got. It calls itself an O2 MDA, but it turns out to be made by HTC. What's strange is that this company makes a load of phones but only sells them branded through mobile networks. There are whole websites devoted to trying to work out which model is which, since there seem to be multiple variations. It's a self-effacing brand model which I never saw before.

Next Generation Science

2006-03-16T16:49:00.000Z

I'll be running a workshop with long-time British Council collaborators in London next week. It's with a group of british and dutch schoolchildren. Programme is here Next Generation Science - London Programme - British Council Netherlands

FreeMind

2006-03-15T10:56:00.000Z

I just downloaded FreeMind - free mind mapping software and it seems incredibly user-friendly, relatively unbuggy, and free.

PNAS paper out

2006-03-15T10:13:00.000Z

Discrete and analogue quantity processing in the parietal lobe is now online at PNAS. Hurrah.

BBC - Radio 4 - Broadcasting House

2006-03-14T13:00:00.000Z

BBC - Radio 4 - Broadcasting House had me as part of a relatively novel take on the mirror neuron story, wondering whether empathy has moral consequences. You can probably get the RealPlayer version this week, or the mp3 for a while. It's from about 37 minutes in.

LabLit.com article/62

2006-03-10T11:59:00.000Z

Amusing diversion on the life-cycle of the scientist: LabLit.com article/62: "The final stage of development is the Permanent Position. Well, actually it’s less of a developmental stage, which by definition should occur as a pre-programmed event, and more akin to the quest of Frodo to destroy the Ring, in which you think he couldn’t possibly ever succeed in a million years and then he manages it by a series of freaky events too coincidental to occur outside the realms of Middle Earth."

Dyscalculia

2006-03-10T10:57:00.000Z

BBC World Service | Science in Action has a bit about the dyscalculia and a demo of Fulvia's DART paradigm. You can listen here, starting at 6'40".

Spinning Science

2006-03-07T10:54:00.000Z

Along with British Council Norway and The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters I'm organising a one day workshop on how the press cover scientific controversy. You can read my notes on the programme here.

Brain scans explain maths problem

2006-03-07T10:00:00.000Z

Brain scans explain maths problem is a BBC piece about a paper which we finally got out after various delays. It uses a clever stimulus invented by Fulvia Castelli to look at the difference between seeing 'how many' and 'how much'.

The Creating Brain

2006-03-07T09:58:00.000Z

The Creating Brain debate will carry an archived broadcast of a debate last night about creativity and genius. It's a book by Nancy Andreasen, and she was talking with Ken Arnold from Wellcome, David Barrie from the Arts Fund and me. Chair was Tim Radford, former Science Editor of The Guardian.

Mathematical beauty

2006-03-06T15:00:00.000Z

justinmullins.com/Euler seems like another lovely exhibition I missed. It was on at Lauderdale House in London recently, and seems to have captured some of the beauty I found in mathematical forms when I studied it.

BrainJuicer - Fast Feedback, Freshly Squeezed

2006-02-13T12:32:00.000Z

A couple of years ago, I worked with John Kearon of Brainjuicer to create a Jungian collective unconscious research project. I am happy to say it has been developing nicely on it's own, and to quote one random user, has become spookily sentient. You can get to it by going to brainjuicer.com (above) and then clicking on Demo Juicers and then "Experimental 'I say, you say' Juicer" under "Experimental Juicers". Let me know what you think.

spiked-science | Article | Human enhancement

2006-02-13T11:48:00.000Z

Josie Appleton's got a write up of the Better Humans debate at the Wellcome last week. "Speculation is running way ahead of the science, said Glaser: 'We don't even know properly how our brains work.'" captured my position pretty well, although I argued that our ignorance puts the developments more into the technology than the science category.

Matlab for Cognitive Neuroscience

2006-02-06T11:44:00.000Z

I'm doing a couple of half days of Matlab instruction, particularly directed towards people who want to use if for SPM and Cogent. 10:00am - 1:00pm on Tue 14 Feb 2006 and Thu 16 Feb 2006 at the ICN. It's part of the UCL Grad School training programme (a concept I support), so students will have to register for it here.

yugop.com

2006-02-03T12:11:00.000Z

I just clicked on yugop.com for the first time in a while. Sometimes you meet an old friend after a few years and they are so fabulous, just like you remember, but reanimated; they've grown and developed all the time you haven't seen them but still retained the things which excited you then; the fact that they have done so much makes it feel like you never parted; that's yugop, completely different, just like he always is. (The most imaginative interactive web design there is.)

Demos - Event - Better Humans?

2006-02-02T17:13:00.000Z

Demos - Event - Better Humans? I'll be speaking at a Demos event next week on human enhancement technologies from memory pills to designer babies.

Online test: Listening displeasure

2006-02-01T17:04:00.000Z

BBC NEWS | Listening displeasure is an article by my friend and colleague Lauren Stewart in which she points to an online test for amusia. She says 20,000 people have tried it since the BBC ran the story. I'm quite interested in kosher online psychology. My mate Dave Perrett has a Perception Lab with other good examples.

Blogger Buzz: Rich Editing in BlogThis!

2006-02-01T15:56:00.000Z

Blogger Buzz: Rich Editing in BlogThis! points to a tool I am finding useful and the extended fantasy domestic fantasy raised a chuckle.

Google suggest

2006-01-31T21:13:00.000Z

Google suggest is the complete as you type search thing from Google. I discovered it since it's activated by default on the toolbar, which now works with Firefox 1.5. I've often been concerned about how much more corralled I feel since Google finds what I want so perfectly. I remember in the old days of AltaVista, I had to plough through lots of dross to get where I wanted, but found useful stuff from time to time. But, hey, I am putting this in via the cool Blog This button.

2006-01-20T21:12:00.000Z

Emailing in from News Cafe on Paradise Island. Probably the last session writing here, and feeling pre-nostaglic. Sniff.

beginning

2006-01-20T17:16:00.000Z

I thought it would be useful to have a non-specific blog, although it's going to be more connected to my professional life.

Under Laboratory Conditions

2006-01-11T12:04:00.000Z

The first of my programmes is broadcast on BBC Four this evening at 9pm. All comments gratefully received. I put up a webpage with some puff and links to the contibutors.