Re: Happy 2017 Winter Solstice!

[Robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

 > From: Mark Reimers <http://www.yahoo.ca/~mark1reimers>
 > Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2017 02:04:15 +0000 (UTC)
 > 
 > Hi Robert,Nice to hear from you.
 > 
 > We've been three years at Michigan State. This spring I moved over to
 > biomedical engineering, although that means more
 > grant-writing.

My friend Brian is dreading having to go through the grant-writing process
again.  (He's a, now retired, professor at UC , but still working
on teaching projects.)

 > Â I've been teaching courses on i) computational
 > brain models, ii) neural data analysis, iii) genes, the brain and
 > behavior. I've hired a second post-doc, and we are making progress on
 > understanding the relation of brain dynamics to behavior.

Ah.  When will Ray Kurzweil be able to upload his brain to the cloud?

 > I'm giving a
 > lot of talks to local interest groups. In August I led a series of
 > four sessions on memory, brain and music.

Music is weird.  It's no wonder that Oliver Sacks was obsessed with it.

 > About Macular degeneration: this is one of the few diseases where
 > genetics really makes a difference. Have you done 23andme?

No.  Unless there is a big change in the laws so that there are more
privacy protections, it's unlikely that I'll do that any time soon.

 > Some
 > treatments based on genetics are beginning to be useful.

Well, my ophthalmologist says that only a breakthrough in stem cells will
help with my right eye.

 > Say Hi to Noelle.

Sure.

 > Mark Reimers humanist, scientist, and mathematician