Institute of Contemporary Art

Today we took Auntie Lindsey to Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art to see the Tara Donovan exhibit. Katie had learned about Tara Donovan in school and wanted to see the exhibit. From the ICA website...

"For over a decade, American sculptor Tara Donovan has transformed huge volumes of everyday items into stunning works of phenomenal impact. Layered, piled, or clustered with an almost viral repetition, these products assume forms that both evoke natural systems and seem to defy the laws of nature.

"Tara Donovan gathers 16 works from the past decade and will premiere a new installation commissioned by the ICA. The artist's first major museum survey, the exhibition examines her distinctive sculptural process—exploring how a single action applied to a single material countless times can transcend our expectations.

"Nebulous, appearing like a mist over the floor, is made of nothing more than strips of Scotch® tape. Bluffs, nearly five-foot-high forms that suggest mountain peaks or stalagmites, are actually teetering stacks of plastic buttons. Creating astonishing visual experiences, the artist's work invites closer looking and bigger thinking about the everyday materials that surround us."

Discovery Museum

We spent part of Thanksgiving Friday with Whit's sister Lindsey at the Discovery Museums in Acton, Massachusetts.


Outdoor "pipe" organ


Earth science area


Into the tornado


Looking down at a very large spirograph


Spirograph in motion


Pumping water thru a network of pipes


One of a pair of parabolic whisper dishes


Playing with gears

EPFL Neurotech Group Meeting December 2, 2008

If you happen to be near Geneva/Lausanne next week...

A new series of seminars starting next week and hosted by the EPFL-CHUV NeuroTech Group will focus on state of the art practice in Neurosurgery, as well as leading edge projects converging between the EPFL and CHUV. This group was formed to foster collaboration and promote brainstorming in order to solve medicine’s most difficult problems in diseases of the brain “from the bench to the OR”.

We are delighted to invite you to the first seminar. The invited speakers are:

Prof. Marc Levivier, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Centre Universitaire Romand de Neurochirurgie and Chairman, Dept of Neurosurgery, CHUV with his talk “Image-guided surgery for brain tumors: surgical procedures and new challenges“

and

Prof. Theo Lasser, Director of Laboratory of Biomedical Optics, EPFL with his talk “From Structure to Function: Coherence Imaging“

The seminar will take place on December 2nd, 16h00-18h00 in room BM.5.202

We look forward to discussing the future with you!

- The EPFL-CHUV NeuroTech Group

Happy Thanksgiving

Potato Slice Art

Nicholas Art

Nicholas and his family


Indiana Jones and the volcano

Nicholas' Spore Creature Number One

Nicholas' Sunday School Project

St. Mary's Annual Church Bazaar

Today was our church's annual church bazaar. Whitney ran the kids' craft table, Katie and Nicholas helped move chairs and clean-up, and Paul made a guest appearance as, well, a special guest.

Katie's 4th Grade Class

Bohemian Summit

You can meet up with me at the Bohemian Summit in Italy being held December 3 to 5, 2008. I will be a panelist on the neuromodulation session on December 4.

Studying Neural Circuits with Genetic Engineering

Technology Review summarizes work at Harvard using genetic engineering and fluorescent proteins to map neuronal circuits in the brains of mice.

Cub Scout Pack 135 Meeting

Opening flag ceremony, camping lesson, and tug of war (Tiger Scouts rock!)...

4th Grade Geology Field Trip

Nice Guy Strategies Book Signing this Thursday

My friend Russ Edelman will be signing copies of his book Nice Guy Strategies at the Burlington (Massachusetts) Barnes & Noble this Thursday at 6pm.

Russ was also recent featured in the Boston Globe - click here for the link.


Timothy Hiltabiddle (left) and Russ Edelman replay their moment of inspiration. (Mike Dean for The Boston Globe)

Little Bits Toy Shop

Little Bits Toys in Wellesley, where Whitney has been working part time for the past year


Whitney working...


Katie and Nicholas with Billie, the owner, playing Rokenbok

View From Our Window...

Three deer walked through our yard this morning about 6AM, stopping to eat. (Only one in this picture.)

Launching of EPFL Center for Neuroprostheses

"EPFL announces the creation of a large world-class center of neuroprostheses. This Lausanne-based pioneering facility, to be inaugurated in January, 2009, will include five Chairs and is situated at the crossroads between fundamental research, clinical applications and market opportunities.

"Imagine a deaf child being able to talk and listen, or giving a gravely handicapped person the possibility of a new form of mobility. These are the kinds of dreams and challenges that spurred the creation of this first large-scale Center of Neuroprostheses.

"The opening of the Center and the start of its pioneering work is made possible by the commitment and personal interest of several individuals active in research and in the community such as Sylvian and Daniel Borel and the Bertarelli family. The creation of the Center is an expression of EPFL's recognized reputation in the domains of neurosciences, engineering (microtechnology, signal processing, robotics) and computer science. It is also ideally placed in Western Switzerland, home to top-level university and hospital organizations, as well as several leading biomedical companies.

"What's a neuroprosthesis? It's a device made up of sensors, connections and electronic chips that are embedded in the body to repair certain neurological deficiencies. Recent progress in artificial retinas and man-machine interfaces that permit communication or action via thoughts alone gives us a glimpse of the possibilities the future might hold for improving the lives of the handicapped. The new Center will concentrate on six main themes: vision (retinal implants), hearing (cochlear implants), mobility (cortical and spinal implants), non-invasive man-machine interfaces (piloting at distance, robotics), the micro-and nano-fabrication of implants, and neuronal coding (signal processing, sensors)..."

Full press release here.

View From My Window...

I spent part of Sunday afternoon working from some borrowed space at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne:



A view of the Lake Geneva and the Alps. The building under construction is the new Rolex Learning Center, which when complete will be the world's largest piece of Swiss cheese


Sunset and the newly opened Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research building

Ten Years Ago this Month: Western Japan

The tori at Miyajima island at high tide...


...and at low tide...


...and here we are


Real green tea


The only building left standing at the Hiroshima bomb site


The gardens at Okayama


Whitney makes friends

Food 'n' Fancies Coming Saturday, November 22

Please support St. Mary's annual fundraiser for outreach activities - all proceeds support good causes in Massachusetts and around the world.

Tae Kwon Do Status Updates

After our recent tests:

Paul - Green Belt
Nicholas - Green Belt
Katie - Yellow Stripe (eligible to begin sparring)

Watching the Election...

My original plans to watch the 2008 Presidential Election returns live Tuesday night went awry as I was going to be on a transatlantic flight (Lufthansa) from about 5pm to midnight east coast time. About an hour before landing the pilot came on the intercom to announce "Of course we have an update on the flight, but much more importantly - the major news organizations have just declared it will be President Obama."

I was able to get to the Lufthansa transit lounge just after touchdown, but just missed Obama's speech in Chicago live. (See picture above.)

Autumn Leaves