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TechNews | Tuesday, October 6th, 2015

  

Neuroscience researchers present at BRAIN Initiative conference

Anoopa Sundararaj an
CO PY E D ITO R

The Brain Research through Advanc—
ing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN)
Initiative is one of the latest projects funded by
the National Institute of Health (NIH). The hu—
man brain is the most complex known struc—
ture in our universe, making the NIH’s fund—
ing essential to neuroscience research, which
aims to better our understanding of the way it
works. In order to fully comprehend and sub—
sequently treat neurological and psychological
disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s
disease, bipolar disorder, epilepsy, autism, and
others, we need to first map the connections
the human brain makes and the patterns and
structures that can be inferred from those con—
nections.

The Chicago Council on Science and
Technology (C2ST), in collaboration with the
Argonne National Laboratory and Chicago So—
ciety for Neuroscience hosted an event titled,
“What is the BRAIN Initiative?” at Northwest—
ern University’s campus in downtown Chicago
on Thursday, October 1. The purpose of the
event, as stated in the program, was to “Help
bring this research initiative into the public eye
and raise awareness of this vital research.” The
three speakers who presented at the program
were Dr. John Maunsell, Dr. Bobby Kasthuri
and Dr. Tom Macek. Maunsell is the Director
of the Grossman Institute for Neuroscience,
Quantitative Biology, and Human Behavior at
the University of Chicago and serves as the Al—

fred D Lasker Professor of Neurobiology. Kast—
huri is a Neuroscience Researcher at Argonne
National Laboratory and is also an assistant
professor in the Department of Neurobiology
at the University of Chicago. Macek, on the
other hand, is a clinical neuroscientist. He is
a Scientific Director of Clinical Sciences CNS
at Takeda Development Center Americas. The
moderator for the evening was Norm Peterson,
who serves as the Director of Government Re—
lations at Argonne National Laboratory.

In the first talk, Maunsell provided
an introductory overview of the functioning
of the brain and stressed on the importance
of understanding it on a much deeper level to
delve into solving the neurological disorders
that plague several million Americans and
even more globally every year. In keeping with
the evening’s theme of providing a clearer un—
derstanding of the BRAIN Initiative, Maunsell
went on to explain why this research is im—
portant now, adding that the overwhelming
increase in technological advancements has
made scientists and researchers feel like they
can overpower a number of the challenges that
they would have faced just a few years or de—
cades ago. He also provided a set of three goals
for the initiative: obtaining a parts list for the
brain, obtaining wiring diagrams of the brain,
and understanding the links between brain and
behavior. As he ended his talk, Maunsell stated
that although the BRAIN Initiative has been
compared to revolutionary scientific projects
like the Human Genome Project, the differ—
ence is that mapping the brain is a task without

Otherworldly Light Show at

Anoopa Sundararaj an
CO PY E D ITO R

Within the next year, if you find
yourself with a few hours to spare, going to
The Otherworldly Light Show at Garfield Park
Conservatory is a great way to spend that time.
If you are extremely busy and the semester is
stressing you out, the conservatory is still an
excellent place to unwind for a few hours and
recharge yourself. The venue is only a two—
minute walk from the Conservatory—Central
Park Drive stop on the CTA’s Green Line. “So—
larise: a sea of all colors” is a location—specific
special exhibit created by Luftwerk, comprised
of Chicago artists Petra Bachmaier and Sean

 

fl .
5.55% ReVIews:

Gallero and is the cause of the aptly named
“otherworldly lights” that have taken over the
Conservatory.

If you have never been to the Gar—
field Park Conservatory before, it is likely that
you will be, as many were, awestruck by the
seemingly endless variety of the exhibits. The
whole space is separated into interconnected
rooms so that each room houses a unique col—
lection of plants, trees, flowers and/or fruits.
Luftwerk has used the exhibits as inspiration to
create a total of five installations, each explor—
ing intriguing ways to experience light, color
and nature. Even if you do not particularly en—
joy or appreciate nature, the atmosphere in the
Conservatory is enough to captivate you.

a clear—cut end goal because the discoveries are
endless and new findings arise continuously.
Maunsell’s talk led into Dr. Bobby
Kasthuri’s talk, which was more specific to
the research he does at his lab. Kasthuri cap—
tivated his audience from the beginning by il—
lustrating that even though our brain controls
our five senses, we almost never use all five
senses to acquire a deeper understanding of
the brain. He said that the way he sees it, part
of the BRAIN Initiative’s mission is “to give us
new ways to visualize the brain.” In the Kast—
huri lab, the biggest current challenge is in re—
gards to the amount of data storage space that
is required to interpret the connections that
are being observed in the brain. Even storing
the data from connections observed in a frac—
tion of a mouse’s brain would take more space
than is feasible. Kasthuri expressed hope that
diverse fields like data science and neurosci—
ence will be able to collaborate more closely
in the coming years, so that efficient methods
can be procured to analyze the data and even—
tually make significant progress towards map—
ping the human brain and understanding the
way it functions. Kasthuri ended with one of
his favorite quotes by John F. Kennedy: “We
choose to go to the moon in this decade and
do the other things, not because they are easy,
but because they are hard; because that goal
will serve to organize and measure the best of
our energies and skills, because that challenge
is one that we are willing to accept, one we are
unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to
win...” using it as inspiration in his own work.

Dr. Tom Macek has been working
with the pharmaceutical industry for over a
decade now to develop new medications for
the treatment of neurological and psychologi—
cal disorders. He described three phases in the
process of developing these medications—the
first is to develop a more comprehensive un—
derstanding of neuropsychiatric illnesses, the
second is to develop animal models for the
drugs, and the third is to obtain better bio—
markers in drug development. The latter half
of his talk was spent putting their NIH fund—
ing in perspective in terms of six—packs of beer.
He compared government funding on this
project and others to the number of six—packs
and amount of money each would cost based
on a roughly chosen estimate of the number of
American adults. His overall data was exten—
sive, but the point was that this NIH grant is
essential to furthering neuroscience and much
more needs to be done to truly comprehend
the functioning of the human brain before
neurological and psychological diseases can be
accurately treated.

The talks were followed by a Q&A
session with questions from the audience. The
event drew a diverse crowd ranging from col—
lege students to retired teachers, scientists, and
science enthusiasts. One of the most successful
aspects of the event was that it delivered to its
target audience by not being too technical in
terms of scientific language and translating in—
stead to layman’s terms that every member in
the audience could likely relate to.

Garfield Park Conservatory

One of the best things about the
Conservatory is its accommodation for people
of all ages. Some exhibits have play areas for
kids, others have a larger concentration of
historical facts that accompany the displays
and some, especially the new installations, are
equally intriguing to children and adults alike.
Throughout the Conservatory, there are con—
veniently placed benches that enable guests
to sit down, relax and appreciate the extraor—
dinary world around them. Few public spaces
have the ability to engage guests of all ages and
demographics equally but the Conservatory
accomplishes this almost effortlessly

The special exhibits opened on Sep—
tember 23, 2015 and will be on display until

 

September 22, 2016, but don’t let that be a rea—
son for you to postpone your visit. The sooner
you visit, the more chances you will have to
keep going back. Additionally, the entire trip
is free as long as you have a working U—Pass
because there is no fee charged at the Conser—
vatory. The Garfield Park Conservatory is open
every day of the week, with special hours on
Wednesday when they are open from 9 am. to
8 pm. Every other day, their hours are 9 am.
to 5 pm. For more information on the special
exhibit, visit http://www.garfieldconservatory.
org/solarise—a—sea—of—all—colors.html

 

Photos by Anoopa Sundammjan

‘Big Grams' EP misses the mark

Soren Spicknall
WIIT MUSIC DIRECTOR

Some collaborative albums come
about as natural extensions of deeply con—
nected music scenes, and by the time they
happen, they seem inevitable. This one is nei—
ther of those things. Put together following a
series of brief meetings at music festivals, “Big
Grams” is the debut EP from a trio of the same
name, composed of OutKast member Big Boi
and indie electro—rock darlings Phantogram.
More than just a meshing of Phantogram’s sig—
nature dream pop style with Big Boi’s rhymes,
the project represents a wholehearted attempt
to create a brand new sound from the talents of
both artists, and for the most part, it succeeds.
Given the nature of the project, diehard fans
of Phantogram won’t think that this EP ranks
among the duo’s best work to date, and Big Boi

devotees will largely consider it as subpar in
comparison to 2012’s critically—acclaimed Vi—
cious Lies and Dangerous Rumors, or anything
he’s done with OutKast. But really, that’s not
the point, since Big Grams represents a brand
new act instead of a one—off collaboration,
those who most fall for this album will be new
fans, not each artist’s established base.

Album opener “Run for Your Life”
is the obvious single from the EP, one of five
tracks on the release produced entirely by
Phantogram themselves. It serves as an intro—
duction to the philosophy behind the album;
reimagining Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel’s
signature composition style through a pure
hip hop lens, with Big Boi providing the lyri—
cal power to make such a concept work. In
fact, that first song and a couple others from
the album could easily find their way into a Big
Boi album, with Barthel’s smooth voice serving

as chorus content and largely avoiding verses.
However, the record shines most where the
vocal balance between Big Boi and Barthel is
evened out, with mid—album standout “Gold—
mine Junkie” giving the best demonstration of
what the group is truly capable of when they
work together as a unit. The middle three
tracks of the EP, where this true meshing of
sounds comes into force, is the strongest pas—
sage present.

Outside the impressive center of the
EP, though, things start to fall apart somewhat.
Songs like “Lights On” are far too light on lyri—
cal impact, with repeated pop tropes (“keep
your lights on for me,” etc.) pervading other—
wise solid backing music. On occasion, Big
Boi seems to be drawing from an outtakes bin
for his verses rather than devising truly new,
hard—hitting lyrics, and no storytelling of im—
portance is ever given to Sarah Barthel to sing

about, an oversight of massive proportions.
In addition, the Skrillex—produced final track
“Drum Machine” simply doesn’t fit in, sound—
ing like a dance—floor mix of a demo reel rather
than a fully fleshed—out song in its own right.
Interestingly, given that only two guest pro—
ducers were involved in the album’s produc—
tion, rapped lyrics seem to be at different levels
in the mix from song to song, which makes the
EP hard to consider as a cohesive effort rather
than a collection of singles. If a couple tracks
had been cut and some more time had been
spent in the studio to combine sounds as well
as Barthel, Big Boi, and Carter do on “Put It
On Her” and “Goldmine Junkie,” Big Grams
would have earned high praises for this release.
As it stands, though, there’s still some work to
do. 5.0/10