connectome...

now in nyt, connectome is getting more attention... :)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/science/28brain.html

in addition to the questions stated in the article, i got some more... 

1. structure at one point to functions? 

2. embodiment? each brain is connected to its own body... so probably we might

have to slice all the body... otherwise, the difference from different brain structure 

may be from different sensory input or different environment... 

3. overfitting? each brain has too many millions neurons and we can have "some" data 

(like a few data points in a very high dimensional space)...

consciousness meter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/science/21consciousness.html

this is awesome if we could measure the degree of consciousness like temperature...
they try to measure it based on the information amount in the subject's brain.
if lots of information flows, the brain is very conscious, otherwise, not so much.
i guess this idea or approach is closely related to Dr. Olaf Sporns' research,
which is to make a map of the brain network based on information flow.

anyway, recently, i see a lot of application of information theory to brain science
or even psychology...

maybe i am on the right track... ^^

Autonomous Vehicle Driving from Italy to China

Autonomous Vehicle Driving from Italy to China
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-software/autonomous-vehicle-driving-from-italy-to-china

a very interesting article about an autonomous vehicle testing...

but, do you believe that we are going to have a real autonomous vehicle in, say, 10 or 20 or years?
or even in your life time? or even in your grandchildren's life?

i am sorry but without a big break through from a super genius, i respectfully doubt that....

Philosophy of Science.

"Philosophy of Science: a very short introduction"
by Samir Okasha

i learned a lot from this book, a really interesting and well written book.
if you consider yourself as a scientist (or to-be) and have never read any book
on 'philosophy of science', try this one. it's easy and worth....

In Search of Memory

"In Search of Memory" by Eric R. Kandel, winner of the Nobel prize.

a well written summary of neuroscience... with focus on memory.
and his life experience and wisdom.

i should have read this book earlier...
then it could have changed my research and even my life.

this is a must read to engineering or science students...

Henri Poincaré

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincaré

"creativity and invention consist of two mental stages, 
first random combinations of possible solutions to a problem, followed by a critical evaluation."
according to Poincaré's two stages.

prosthetic fingers...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/business/11novel.html
artificial hand... (prosthetic fingers). pretty cool!

Paul Erdos...

the followings are copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erdős

Other idiosyncratic elements of Erdős' vocabulary include:

• children were referred to as "epsilons";
• women were "bosses";
• men were "slaves";
• people who stopped doing math had "died";
• people who physically died had "left";
• alcoholic drinks were "poison";
• music was "noise";
• people who had married were "captured";
• people who had divorced were "liberated";
• to give a mathematical lecture was "to preach" and
• to give an oral exam to a student was "to torture" him/her.