Although he has never taken a biology class, Gene Myers’s work gets a lot of notice from biologists. Fifteen years ago, Myers, whose formal training is in computer science, mathematics, physics, and engineering, co-wrote an article for the Journal of Molecular Biology that would become the most highly cited scientific paper of the decade. read story
It might make for an interesting, albeit exhausting, research project to follow Roland Strauss as he moves through his world observing the ways insects maneuver through theirs. The 43-year-old neurobiologist and gadgetry guru never seems to sit still.
Meet Toddler, a walking robot that mimics the human gait. Created by computer engineer Russ Tedrake in the lab of computational neuroscientist and HHMI investigator H. Sebastian Seung at MIT, Toddler uses customized learning software to teach itself to walk in less than 20 minutes. The robot “doesn’t walk too much like a human, but we think it learns like a human,” Tedrake says. read in full issue (pdf)
At a recent seminar, HHMI investigator Larry Goldstein flashed a slide of Godzilla, the monster of Japanese sci-fi, towering over a cityscape, devouring a string of railroad cars. The next slide showed Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan the Barbarian, bedecked in fur loincloth and sword, muscles bulging. read in full issue (pdf)
Sidebar: Conducting the Choir
An expert on the brains of flies, cockroaches, and crayfish last week garnered one of the highest honors available to scientists from the United Kingdom. read story