MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Link on the Macalester College Campus, St. Paul, MN

The Link - Woit_081010_023-0, a photo by Macalester College on Flickr.

Registered for 2012 Library Technology Conference today to be held at Macalester College in March.

Registration Now Open for Library Technology Conference, 2012

http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/libtech_conf/2012/sessions/4/Registered for Library Technology Conference, 2012 to be held in March at Macalester College in St. Paul. Difficult to choose which session to attend! Looks like great keynote speakers and topics.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nobel Conference 47

Gustavus Adolphus College, Saint Peter, Minnesota

Martha J. Farah, Ph. D. - "21st Century Neuroscience: From Lab and Clinic to Home, School and Office"

NOBEL CONFERENCE 47, THE BRAIN AND BEING HUMAN, Gustavus Adolphus College

Dr. Martha Farah is currently the Walter H. Anneberg Professor in Natural Sciences and Director of the Center for Neruoscience and Society at the University of Pennsylvania. A prominent neuroscientist, Dr. Farah is one of the founders of the field called neuroethics. Her most recent book is Neuroethics: An Introduction with Readings. After working in other areas, Dr. Farah told us that she is in the third phase of her career. Her lecture focused on the place of neuroscience in society. She began with the 6,000 years of history of neuroscience, going back to the fourth century, BC. First was BASIC SCIENCE - understanding how the brain works. Next came APPLIED MEDICAL SCIENCE - understanding how to treat psychiatric and neurological disorders. Now in the 21st century, there are many applications that do not fit into either category. It has just been in recent years that Cognitive Neuroscience "got on its feet," Dr. Farah told us. Due to new technology and theories, higher levels of thinking are now a part of neuroscience. Neural bases of human thought, feelings and behavior are being understood more now than previously - the way that we think about ourselves in the universe.

A major portion of Dr. Farah's lecture was on brain enhancement and psychopharmocology. She talked a lot about "therapeutic justice" in the criminal justice system. There are many ethical issues to consider with brain enhancement. Dr. Farah talked about direct coercion, indirect coercion, cheating, distributive justice and fairness, and the role of the physician. Major questions she asked were " What does it mean to be human?" and "Are we becoming posthuman?" and "Is that okay?"

Dr. Farah talked about brain imaging, from basic research and medicine to current marketing. She asked if mental privacy is being threatened by brain imaging and asked how it can be protected. She also used lie detection as an example. In discussing how we think about ourselves, Dr. Farah talked about The Astonishing Theory of Francis Crick, who is famous for his DNA work. She presented so many questions for us about moral and legal responsibility, how we find meaning, and how we understand beliefs and the beliefs of others. Her field is now a "slippery slope" for the criminal justice system as it tries to decide if a person was acting rationally and if the outcome was what was wanted.

Although there was a lot of new information for me, the reminder that coffee and wine have been used to enhance performance for thousands of years, gave a historical perspective. Dr. Farah gave us more questions than answers as she said "What is normal", and "Who decides what is normal behavior". In 1850, 12 hours of sleep a day was normal, while now that is rare.

Dr. Farah said that most neuroscience research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, so it applies to medical or applied science. Who makes the medical decisions has been taken out of the hands of physicians. More medical questions were "What will the market bear?, Who will pay for the services?," and "Who will be entitled to them?" It was interesting to hear her mention that fertility medicine is not healing the sick, but she was happy to give birth at age 40. In the question and answer session that followed, Dr. Farah's answer to the question of "What makes us human?" was "I don't know."