news 2009

Cambridge, Mass. December 3, 2009 - Taking inspiration from genetic screening techniques, researchers from Harvard and MIT have demonstrated a way to build better artificial visual systems with the help of low-cost, high-performance gaming hardware. The neural processing involved in visually recognizing even the simplest object in a natural environment is profound - and profoundly difficult to mimic.

Cambridge, Mass. September 7, 2009 - Neurobiologist Florian Engert, a pioneer in the development of the larval zebrafish as a system for study of neural circuits and behavior, has been named professor of molecular and cellular biology in Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1, 2009.

A team of researchers at UCL's Ear Institute is using a unique machine to deepen our understanding of how the brain responds to sound. The Ear Institute's new small-animal magnetoencephalograph, or MEG for short, is the most advanced machine of its type in the world. Its installation is a result of a collaboration between UCL, the Kanazawa Institute of Technology (KIT) in Japan and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris, France.

Cambridge, Mass. April 30, 2009 - Researchers at Harvard University have found that humans aren't the only ones who can groove to a beat - some other species can dance, too. This capability was previously believed to be specific to humans. The research team found that only species that can mimic sound seem to be able to keep a beat, implying an evolutionary link between the two capacities.