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Do people realize that chemistry plays a key role in helping solve some of the most serious problems facing the world today? Chemists want to find the building blocks of the chemical universe--the molecules that form materials, living cells and whole organisms. Many chemists are medical explorers looking for new ways to maintain and improve health. Others are helping to preserve the planet by developing safe, cheap and efficient ways to make the materials used every day. This paper presents articles that take a look at the roles of chemistry and chemists to everyone's lives. It also contains profiles of several chemists. Contents of this document are: (1) Actions & Reactions; (2) Meet... Virginia Cornish; (3) You Are What You Eat!; (4) Meet... Ram Sasisekharan; (5) Cool Tools; (6) Meet... Jack Taunton; (7) Meet... Gus Rosania; (8) Meet... Cathy Drennan; (9) Nature's Products; (10) Meet... Jay Keasling; (11) Chemistry... For a Healthier World; (12) Meet... Serrine Lau; (13) Chemistry Meets Medicine; (14) Meet... Andy Combs; (15) What Is Chemistry?; and (16) You Could Be a Chemist!

In March, 1973, after a review of the Ontario universities' three-year plans, a provisional embargo was placed on doctoral work in biophysics. A full-scale assessment with outside consultants was not necessary in the case of a provisional embargo. Instead, the method used to remove the embargo was self-study by the discipline group leading to a report to the Advisory Committee on Academic Planning (ACAP), which, in turn, makes recommendations to the Council of Ontario Universities (COU). The report is one of a series of disciplinary studies whose emphasis is on forward planning, and it is hoped that the implementation of COU's recommendation will help to ensure the more ordered growth and development of graduate studies in Ontario's universities. The monograph includes the"Biophysics Planning Study" containing specific recommendations concerning biophysics graduate studies; the graduate programs established and proposed in Ontario prepared by the discipline group; and the universities' comments. (Author/JMF)

The purpose of this investigation was to assess biofeedback (BF) and progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) and placebo-control training by means of a post-training transfer test. The subjects for the research were 30 women. Initial tests consisted of measuring the electromyographic response of the frontalis muscle of the forehead to stress. After the test procedures were completed, training sessions were conducted. BF subjects were instructed to use a feedback tone as a guide for relaxation. PMR subjects heard progressive relaxation instructions that were modified so that the majority of the training instructions were directed specifically to the frontalis muscle. The group of subjects receiving placebo training listened to a short, taped presentation on the benefits of relaxation after which they heard music that fluctuated in volume and tempo. Results showed that both BF and PMR training reduced resting electromyography significantly more than the placebo-control procedure. BF subjects had significantly greater reductions following training than either the PMR or control groups. (JD)

Lack of attentional control--inability to concentrate--has often made the difference between successful and unsuccessful performance on the part of athletes. Attention is controlled neurologically by a very complex interaction of a large portion of the cerebrum and is not localized to any one structure. The mechanism involves a memory retrieval process to judge the pertinence or meaning of stimulus inputs and thereby decide upon whether or not attention should be allocated to such inputs. Biofeedback technology suggests a way in which the attentional control mechanism could be optimized in the training of athletes. (Author/JD)

Information is provided on some of the interesting and newsworthy developments in physics and its related fields during 1983. Areas considered include: (1) acoustics; (2) astrophysics; (3) condensed matter physics; (4) crystallography; (5) physics education; (6) electron and atomic physics; (7) elementary particle physics; (8) fluid dynamics; (9) medical physics and biophysics; (10) nuclear physics; (11) optics; and (12) plasma and fusion physics. Comments on the 1983 Nobel prize in physics (jointly awarded to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and William A. Fowler for work relating to the evolution of stars), a list of American Institute of Physics and member society awards, medal, and prize recipients for 1983 (with a brief comment on the major contribution of each recipient), and a subject index are included. (JN)

Implications of biophysicist Herman Epstein's research on brain growth periodization, which develop a neurobiological consideration of learning issues for middle school curricula, have created controversy among educators and stimulus for further research. This presentation (1) summarizes the writer's interpretations of these data and implications for middle level education and considers more recent data reinforcing these findings, (2) raises questions requiring further investigation, and (3) responds to criticism of brain growth periodization data and their suggestions for middle level education. Describing special mind and brain growth periods based on study of brain, skull, and mental development, Epstein has identified both growth spurts and slower brain growth intervals. He posits that this relationship between brain and intelligence development might explain the developmental learning stages established by Piaget. The areas of brain hemispheric specialization and neural plasticity offer additional reasons to respond to this growing database. Longitudinal research by curriculum planners and neuroscientists must be undertaken to discover appropriate facilitating activities for precocity and identification of other stage task activities. Rather than trying "harder and earlier" to get children to master subject matter and cognitive skills, the central research issue remains to match the learner's readiness, cognitive level, and difficulty of the learning challenge. Six pages of references conclude the report. (CJH)

Based on existing data, we wish to put forward a biological model of motor system on the neuron scale. Then we indicate its implications in statistics and learning. Specifically, neuron’s firing frequency and synaptic strength are probability estimates in essence. And the lateral inhibition also has statistical implications. From the standpoint of learning, dendritic competition through retrograde messengers is the foundation of conditional reflex and “grandmother cell” coding. And they are the kernel mechanisms of motor learning and sensory-motor integration respectively. Finally, we compare motor system with sensory system. In short, we would like to bridge the gap between molecule evidences and computational models.

The simulation data presented here, and the conceptual framework developed for their interpretation are, both, in need of substantial refinement and extension. However, granting that they are initial pointers of some merit, and elementary indicators of general principles, several implications follow: the activity patterns of neurons and their assemblies are interdependent with the extracellular milieu in which they are embedded, and to whose time varying composition they contribute. The complexity of this interdependence in the temporal dimension forecloses any time and context invariant relation between what the experimenter may consider stimulus input and its representation in neural activity. Hence, ideas of coding by (quasi)-digital neurons are called in question by the mutual interdependence of neurons and their humoral milieu. Instead, concepts of 'mass action' in the Nervous system gain a new perspective: this time augmented by including the chemical medium surrounding neurons as part of the dynamics of the system as a whole. Accordingly, a meaningful way to describe activity in a neuron assembly would be in terms of a state space in which it can move along an infinite number of trajectories.

The paper presents a very simple toy model that is simulated to experience some aspects related to what is it people want and need when related to the social happiness. By outlining some short discussions related to the distinguishing of what we call “want” and “need”, we see how both micro-social aspects may emerge the happiness as well as the urge to innovate and affinity to the collective creativity and social progress.

What is space computing,simulation, or understanding? Converging from several sources, this seems to be something more primitive than what is meant nowadays by computation, something that was along with us since antiquity (the word "choros", "chora", denotes "space" or "place" and is seemingly the most mysterious notion from Plato, described in Timaeus 48e - 53c) which has to do with cybernetics and with the understanding of the front end visual system. It may have some unexpected applications, also. Here, inspired by Bateson (see Supplementary Material), I explore from the mathematical side the point of view that there is no difference between the map and the territory, but instead the transformation of one into another can be understood by using a formalism of tangle diagrams.

By explicitly discussing the connections between quantum mechanics and consciousness and bravely using the book containing these discussions as course material for students, the authors show the readers and teach the students that such connections are real and tangible not just pseudoscience or New Age mumbo-jumbo. In doing so, Rosenblum and Kuttner lead by example. Hopefully, other physicists and scientists in the academics would follow suit by breaking away from the invisible “prison” of conformity and orthodoxy, opening widely physicists’ closet containing their skeleton and turning the same into golden opportunities for solving the mystery of consciousness. I highly recommend this book.

A quantitative interrelation between the physical parameters of electromagnetic and acoustic waves perceived by the sight and hearing organs of a human has been discovered. It is shown that visible light wavelengths can be correlated with the range most used by humans for acoustic communication, including, in particular, verbal dialogue. It is shown, that maxima of spectroscopic sensitivity of the eye receptors are placed on the scale of wavelengths like musical consonance intervals (the small third, major third, quart).

Experimental evidence for self-organised criticality (SOC) in non-conservative systems has recently been found in studies of rat cortical slices. The size distribution of observed neuronal avalanches has been attested to obey $3/2$ power-law scaling. A mean-field sandpile model of a noisy neuronal system is proposed to refute the irreconcilability between non-conservation and criticality put forward by longstanding SOC hypotheses. The model predicts that neuronal networks achieve and maintain criticality despite non-conservation due to the presence of background activity originating from membrane potential fluctuations within individual neurons. Furthermore, small networks are demonstrated to tip towards epileptiform activity when background activity is strong. This finding ties in redundancy, an intriguing feature of brain networks, to robustness of SOC behaviour.

A self-organising model is proposed to explain the criticality in cortical networks deduced from recent observations of neuronal avalanches. Prevailing understanding of self-organised criticality (SOC) dictates that conservation of energy is essential to its emergence. Neuronal networks however are inherently non-conservative as demonstrated by microelectrode recordings. The model presented here shows that SOC can arise in non-conservative systems as well, if driven internally. Evidence suggests that synaptic background activity provides the internal drive for non-conservative cortical networks to achieve and maintain a critical state. SOC is robust to any degree $\eta \in (0,1]$ of background activity when the network size $N$ is large enough such that $\eta N\sim 10^3$. For small networks, a strong background leads to epileptiform activity, consistent with neurophysiological knowledge about epilepsy.

This article uses coordinated database, physics and evolutionary considerations to suggest how the mind stores and processes its data. A) The comparison is made between the capabilities of the mind and those of a modern relational database while conserving phenomenality. The strong structural similarity of the two systems leads to the conclusion that the mind may be profitably described as being a network of “mental databases” (i.e. databases with phenomenal capability). This is the MD hypothesis. The need for bidirectional material-to-mental bridging and addressing indexes is shown. This is the Neural Index (NI) hypothesis. The MD and NI hypotheses taken together constitute the MDNI hypothesis. B) A strength shown by the MDNI theory is that it engenders proposals for answering questions relating to gaps in current knowledge. Among others, examples are: Question 1) How does the brain show such plasticity in repairing injuries? Answer 1) By recreating indexes from protected mental data. Q2) What are the Darwinian advantages of consciousness? A2) Economy of material resources such as brain weight and facilitation of evolution, among others. Q3) Why can’t the NCC of phenomenal events, such as the feeling of pain, be seen through scanning and other brain activity investigation methods? A3) They take place in the mental domain. Q4) Is consciousness causal or epiphenomenal? A4) Causal. C) The MDNI hypothesis is situated in a Penrosian expanded physical environment requiring Darwinian evolutionary continuity, modularity and phenomenality. This last property cannot in principle be generated or even simulated in Turing machines (i.e. all digital computers) modeling the brain, however much complexity, multiprocessing and interconnection takes place. The MDNI hypothesis is shown to contribute to the clarification of other matters concerning the brain/mind, such as its stability, causality and binding capabilities. It is also used to give a new interpretation of Libet’s work. The concept of the progressive “emergence” of consciousness as biological evolution advanced is shown to be false because consciousness must have existed from a relatively early period in brain evolution. D) The question of what neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) between sensorimotor data and instrumented observation one can hope to obtain using current biophysics is investigated. It is deduced that what is seen using the various brain investigation methods reflects only that material part of current activity transactions (e.g. visualizing) which update and interrogate the mind, but not the contents of the integrated mental database which constitutes the mind itself. This approach yields reasons why there is much neural activity in an area to which a conscious function is ascribed (e.g. the amygdala is associated with fear), yet there is no visible part of the brain’s electromagnetic or quantum activity which can be clearly identified as phenomenal.

Photons are intrinsically quantum objects and natural long-distance carriers of information in both classical and quantum communications1. Since brain functions involve information and many experiments have shown that quantum entanglement is physically real, we have contemplated from the perspective of our recent hypothesis2 on the possibility of entangling the quantum entities inside the brain with those in an external anaesthetic sample and carried out experiments toward that end. Here we report that applying magnetic pulses to the brain when a general anaesthetic sample was placed in between caused the brain to feel the effect of said anaesthetic for several hours after the treatment as if the test subject had actually inhaled the same. The said effect is consistently reproducible on all four subjects tested. We further found that drinking water exposed to magnetic pulses, laser light, microwave or even flashlight when an anaesthetic sample was placed in between also causes consistently reproducible brain effects in various degrees. We have in addition tested several medications including morphine and obtained consistently reproducible results. Further, through additional experiments we have verified that the said brain effect is the consequence of quantum entanglement between quantum entities inside the brain and those of the chemical substance under study induced by the photons of the magnetic pulses or applied lights. We suggest that the said quantum entities inside the brain are nuclear and/or electron spins and discuss the profound implications of these results.

Quantum entanglement is ubiquitous in the microscopic world and manifests itself macroscopically under some circumstances. But common belief is that it alone cannot be used to transmit information nor could it be used to produce macroscopic non-local effects. Yet we have recently found evidence of non-local effects of chemical substances on the brain produced through it. While our reported results are under independent verifications by other groups, we report here our experimental findings of non-local chemical, thermal and gravitational effects in simple physical systems such as reservoirs of water quantum-entangled4 with water being manipulated in a remote reservoir. With the aids of high-precision instruments, we have found that the pH value, temperature and gravity of water in the detecting reservoirs can be non-locally affected through manipulating water in the remote reservoir. In particular, the pH value changes in the same direction as that being manipulated; the temperature can change against that of local environment; and the gravity can change against local gravity. These non-local effects are all reproducible and can be used for non-local signalling and many other purposes. We suggest that they are mediated by quantum entanglement between nuclear and/or electron spins in treated water and discuss the profound implications of these results.

This article uses database, evolution and physics considerations to suggest how the mind stores and processes its data. Its innovations in its approach lie in:- A) The comparison between the capabilities of the mind to those of a modern relational database while conserving phenomenality. The strong functional similarity of the two systems leads to the conclusion that the mind may be profitably described as being a mental database. The need for material/mental bridging and addressing indexes is discussed. B) The consideration of what neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) between sensorimotor data and instrumented observation one can hope to obtain using current biophysics. It is deduced that what is seen using the various brain scanning methods reflects only that part of current activity transactions (e.g. visualizing) which update and interrogate the mind, but not the contents of the integrated mental database which constitutes the mind itself. This approach yields reasons why there is much neural activity in an area to which a conscious function is ascribed (e.g. the amygdala is associated with fear), yet there is no visible part of its activity which can be clearly identified as phenomenal. The concept is then situated in a Penrosian expanded physical environment, requiring evolutionary continuity, modularity and phenomenality.Several novel Darwinian advantages arising from the approach are described.

Many experiments have shown that quantum entanglement is physically real. In this paper, we will discuss its ontological origin, implications and applications by thinking outside the standard interpretations of quantum mechanics. We argue that quantum entanglement originates from the primordial spin processes in non-spatial and non-temporal pre-spacetime, implies genuine interconnectedness and inseparableness of once interacting quantum entities, plays vital roles in biology and consciousness and, once better understood and harnessed, has far-reaching consequences and applications in many fields such as medicine and neuroscience. We further argue that quantum computation power also originates from the primordial spin processes in pre-spacetime. Finally, we discuss the roles of quantum entanglement in spin-mediated consciousness theory.

The current wisdom in the classical neural net theory holds that the only direct action of the electric field in neurons is upon voltage-gated ion channels, which open and close their gates for ions. The intraneuronal biochemical activities are thought to be modulated indirectly either by the entering in the cytoplasm ions that act as second messengers or via linked to the ion channels enzymes. In this paper we present a novel possibility for subneuronal processing of information by cytoskeletal microtubule tubulin tails and we show that the local electromagnetic field brings information that could be converted into specific protein tubulin tail conformational states. Long-range collective coherent behavior of the tubulin tails could transmit solitary waves in the form of sine-Gordon kinks, antikinks or breathers along the microtubule outer surface and the tubulin tail soliton collisions could serve as elementary computational gates that control cytoskeletal processes. The biological importance of the presented model is due to the unique biological enzymatic energase action of the tubulin tails, which is experimentally shown to control the sites of microtubule-associated protein attachment and the kinesin transport of post-Golgi vesicles.

Spin is the origin of quantum effects in both Bohm and Hestenes quantum formulism and a fundamental quantum process associated with the structure of space-time. Thus, we have recently theorized that spin is the mind-pixel and developed a qualitative model of consciousness based on nuclear spins inside neural membranes and proteins. In this paper, we explore the possibility of unpaired electron spins being the mind-pixels. Besides free O2 and NO, the main sources of unpaired electron spins in neural membranes and proteins are transition metal ions and O2 and NO bound/absorbed to large molecules, free radicals produced through biochemical reactions and excited molecular triplet states induced by fluctuating internal magnetic fields. We show that unpaired electron spin networks inside neural membranes and proteins are modulated by action potentials through exchange and dipolar coupling tensors and spin-orbital coupling and g-factor tensors and perturbed by microscopically strong and fluctuating internal magnetic fields produced largely by diffusing O2. We argue that these spin networks could be involved in brain functions since said modulation inputs information carried by the neural spike trains into them, said perturbation activates various dynamics within them and the combination of the two likely produce stochastic resonance thus synchronizing said dynamics to the neural firings. Although quantum coherence is desirable, it is not required for these spin networks to serve as the microscopic components for the classical neural networks. On the quantum aspect, we speculate that human brain works as follows with unpaired electron spins being the mind-pixels: Through action potential modulated electron spin interactions and fluctuating internal magnetic field driven activations, the neural electron spin networks inside neural membranes and proteins form various entangled quantum states some of which survive decoherence through quantum Zeno effects or in decoherence-free subspaces and then collapse contextually via irreversible and non-computable means producing consciousness and, in turn, the collective spin dynamics associated with said collapses have effects through spin chemistry on classical neural activities thus influencing the neural networks of the brain. Thus, according to this alternative model, the unpaired electron spin networks are the “mind-screen,” the neural membranes and proteins are the mind-screen and memory matrices, and diffusing O2 and NO are pixel-activating agents. Together, they form the neural substrates of consciousness.

In this paper we show that nuclear spin networks in neural membranes are modulated by action potentials through J-coupling, dipolar coupling and chemical shielding tensors and perturbed by microscopically strong and fluctuating internal magnetic fields produced largely by paramagnetic oxygen. We suggest that these spin networks could be involved in brain functions since said modulation inputs information carried by the neural spike trains into them, said perturbation activates various dynamics within them and the combination of the two likely produce stochastic resonance thus synchronizing said dynamics to the neural firings. Although quantum coherence is desirable and may indeed exist, it is not required for these spin networks to serve as the subatomic components for the conventional neural networks.

This paper presents in details how the subjective time is constructed by the brain cortex via reading packets of information called "time labels", produced by the right basal ganglia that act as brain timekeeper. Psychophysiological experiments have measured the subjective "time quanta" to be 40 ms and show that consciousness operates beyond that scale - an important result having profound implications for the Q-mind theory. Although in most current mainstream biophysics research on cognitive processes, the brain is modelled as a neural network obeying classical physics, Penrose (1989, 1997) and others have argued that quantum mechanics may play an essential role, and that successful brain simulations can only be performed with a quantum computer. Tegmark (2000) showed that make-or-break issue for the quantum models of mind is whether the relevant degrees of freedom of the brain can be sufficiently isolated to retain their quantum coherence and tried to settle the issue with detailed calculations of the relevant decoherence rates. He concluded that the mind is classical rather than quantum system, however his reasoning is based on biological inconsistency. Here we present detailed exposition of molecular neurobiology and define the dynamical timescale of cognitive processes linked to consciousness to be 10-15 ps showing that macroscopic quantum coherent phenomena in brain are not ruled out, and even may provide insight in understanding life, information and consciousness.

The current paper investigates the biological models of stable brain microtubules as quantum or classical computers whose function is based on electron hopping associated with kinking of the tubulin dimer. Hameroff (1998a, 1998b, 2003a, 2003b), Tuszynski et al. (1998), Hagan et al. (2000), Mershin et al. (1999); Mershin (2003) suppose that the energy needed could be somehow delivered via guanosine diphosphate (GDP) exchange for guanosine triphosphate (GTP) or via cycles of tubulin bound GTP hydrolysis. Here is presented biological and structural data from electron diffraction studies performed by Lowe et al. (2001) and computer simulation with MDL ® Chime Version 2.6 SP4, explaining and visualizing the inconsistency of the proposed tubulin bit (qubit) GTP energized alpha <-> beta computation and/or tubulin bound GTP pumped coherence in stable microtubules.

If we want to better understand how the microtubules can translate and input the information carried by the electrophysiologic impulses that enter the brain cortex, a detailed investigation of the local electromagnetic field structure is needed. In this paper are assessed the electric and the magnetic field strengths in different neuronal compartments. The calculated results are verified via experimental data comparison. It is shown that the magnetic field is too weak to input information to microtubules and no Hall effect, respectively QHE is realistic. Local magnetic flux density is less than 1/300 of the Earth’s magnetic field that’s why any magnetic signal will be suffocated by the surrounding noise. In contrast the electric field carries biologically important information and acts upon voltage-gated transmembrane ion channels that control the neuronal action potential. If mind is linked to subneuronal processing of information in the brain microtubules then microtubule interaction with the local electric field, as input source of information is crucial. The intensity of the electric field is estimated to be 10V/m inside the neuronal cytoplasm however the details of the tubulin-electric field interaction are still unknown. A novel hypothesis stressing on the tubulin C-termini intraneuronal function is presented replacing the current flawed models (Tuszynski 2003, Mershin 2003, Hameroff 2003, Porter 2003) presented at the Quantum Mind II Conference held at Tucson, Arizona, 15-19 March 2003, that are shown in this presentation to be biologically and physically inconsistent.

In this paper, we give a primary quantum theoretical model of telepathy based on the principle of quantum superluminal communication (QSC). Some feasible experimental suggestions are presented. The possible application of telepathy as one kind of new communication means is also discussed.

Quantum entanglement is shown to be the only acceptable physical solution to the binding problem. The biological basis of interneuronal entanglement is described in the frames of the beta-neurexin-neuroligin model developed by Georgiev (2002) and is proposed novel mechanism for control of the neurons that are temporarily entangled to produce every single conscious moment experienced as present. The model provides psychiatrists with ‘deeper’ understanding of the functioning of the psyche in normal and pathologic conditions.

Epiphenomenalism is shown to be absurd because the development of consciousness must be explainable through natural selection. A detailed neuromolecular basis of the neuromediator release is given and it is stressed on the possible key point where the quantum mind could act, namely presynaptic scaffold protein dynamics and detachment of the calcium sensor v-SNARE synaptotagmin-1. The beta-neurexin molecules are tuned via fast propagating solitons by the quantum coherent microtubule network so that the beta-neurexin molecule thermal vibrations could promote or suppress conformational changes via vibrational multidimensional tunneling, which drives synaptotagmin-1 detachment from the SNARE complex under calcium ion binding. Following the synaptotagmin-1 detachment membrane fusion takes place in SNARE dependent fashion and the presynaptic vesicle spills neuromediator in the synaptic cleft. Thus the quantum transfer of information causally affects the neuromediator release.

A companion paper (Bell, 2001) formulated a model of the cochlea as a surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonator. This supporting paper seeks to give a working account of the sensing elements in the ear and how they operate together to create a SAW resonator. A key feature of any such device is that the interdigital transducers alternate in polarity, an arrangement ideal for launching and detecting surface waves. Translated to the ear, the three rows of outer hair cells (OHCs) are conjectured to be the interdigital transducers. In the simplest (degenerate) SAW resonator, only a single set of three electrodes is required to create resonance between the fingers, a situation presumed to apply in the cochlea, where OHC2 is assumed to respond in antiphase to OHC1 and 3. The antiphasic response is not to displacement, but to intracochlear fluid pressure. An examination of the literature interprets OHCs as responding directly to pressure via their cell bodies, and two populations, with opposite response polarities, are observed. Whether an OHC behaves in one way or the other depends on its membrane potential and turgor pressure, so it is conjectured that OHC1/3 operate at a membrane potential of about –70 mV, whereas in OHC2 it is about –50 mV. At low sound pressure levels, two mechanisms for creating an electrical response in OHCs are identified: one involves the piezoelectric response of the OHC wall to pressure, the other a transient sodium current which acts as a biological ‘transistor’ to amplify the transducer voltage.

In 1857 Helmholtz proposed that the ear contained an array of sympathetic resonators, like piano strings, which served to give the ear its fine frequency discrimination. Since the discovery that most healthy human ears emit faint, pure tones (spontaneous otoacoustic emissions), it has been possible to view these narrowband signals as the continuous ringing of the resonant elements. But what are the elements? It is noteworhty that motile outer hair cells lie in a precise crystal-like array with their sensitive stereocilia in contact with the tectorial membrane, a gelatinous structure with an observed surface tension. This paper therefore speculates that ripples (surface tension waves) on the lower surface of the tectorial membrane propagate to and fro between neighbouring cells. This mechanism defines a surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonator, and relies on the outer hair cells directly sensing intracochlear fluid pressure through their cell bodies; in this way the proposal revisits the resonance theory of hearing. The SAW resonator acts as a regenerative receiver of acoustic energy, a topology which was invoked in 1948 by Gold, who later drew the analogy to an 'underwater piano' to describe the cochlea's problem of how it could vibrate with high Q while immersed in fluid. The proposal also gives a physical description of the cochlear amplifier postulated by Davis in 1983. An active array of resonating cavities driven by outer hair cells can explain spontaneous emissions, the shape of the basilar membrane tuning curve, and evoked emissions, among others, and could relate strongly to music. At levels above which the cochlear amplifier saturates, ripples on the tectorial membrane can still be identified, this time due to vibration of the tectorial membrane against the sharp vestibular lip. This second putative mechanism provides time delays between initiation of the ripple by acoustic pressure variations and its detection by the inner hair cells, and so represents an alternative way of interpreting the traveling wave. Thus, by invoking two ways of generating ripples on the tectorial membrane, a comprehensive account of cochlear mechanics can be constructed, unifying a resonance theory (at low levels) with a traveling wave picture (at high levels).

In 1857 Helmholtz proposed that the ear contained an array of sympathetic resonators, like piano strings, which served to give the ear its fine frequency discrimination. Since the discovery that most healthy human ears emit faint, pure tones (spontaneous otoacoustic emissions), it has been possible to view these narrowband signals as the continuous ringing of the resonant elements. But what are the elements? We note that motile outer hair cells lie in a precise crystal-like array with their sensitive stereocilia in contact with the gelatinous tectorial membrane. This paper therefore proposes that ripples on the surface of the tectorial membrane propagate to and fro between neighbouring cells. The resulting array of active resonators accounts for spontaneous emissions, the shape of the ear’s tuning curve, cochlear echoes, and could relate strongly to music. By identifying the resonating elements that eluded Helmholtz, this hypothesis revives the resonance theory of hearing, displaced this century by the traveling wave picture, and locates the regenerative receiver invoked by Gold in 1948.

Electronic journal (e-journal) publishing has started to change the ways we think about publish-ing. However, many scholars and scientists in the mind and brain sciences are still ignorant of the new possibilities and on-going debates. This paper will provide a summary of the issues in-volved, give an update of the current discussion, and supply practical information on issues re-lated to e- journal publishing and self-archiving relevant for the mind and brain sciences. Issues such as differences between traditional and e-journal publishing, open archive initiatives, world-wide conventions, quality control, costs involved in e-journal publishing, and copyright questions will be addressed. Practical hints on how to self-archive, how to submit to the e-journal Psycolo-quy, how to create an open research archive, and where to find information relevant to e-publishing will be supplied.

In many body systems, constituents interact with each other, forming a recursive pattern of mutual interaction and giving rise to many interesting phenomena. Based upon concepts of the modern many body theory, a model for a generic many body system is developed. A novel approach is used to investigate the general features in such a system. An interesting phase transition in the system is found. Possible link to brain dynamics is discussed. It is shown how some of the basic brain processes, such as learning and memory, find therein a natural explanation.

In 1994, a large-tree harvest standard known as the "21-inch rule" was applied to land and resource management plans of national forests in eastern Oregon and Washington (hereafter, the "east side") to halt the loss of large, old, live, and dead trees and old forest patches. These trees and forest patches have distinct ecological, economic, and social values, as reflected in widespread fish and wildlife use, public support for protecting them, and commercial interest in harvesting them, thus they have been the topic of much discussion and debate. At the request of regional Forest Service managers, we review the scientific knowledge accrued since implementation of the 21-inch rule and discuss the rule's role and relevance to forest planning today. Critical to our review are new findings from the social sciences and their integration with new biophysical and ecological science to form a more holistic understanding of forest ecosystems and the values they provide. We examine how human values associated with old trees and old forests are nuanced and evolving and discuss important social and economic changes relevant to large, old trees and old forests that have occurred across the Pacific Northwest in the past three decades. Major advances also have been realized in landscape and fire ecology, climate and carbon science, and wildlife, fishery, and silviculture sciences related to the role and importance of large and old trees in east-side forests. Key findings show that trees of early-seral species that are older than 150 years contribute important ecological values not present in younger large trees. Other findings come from climate change research, landscape assessments, and fire history studies, which have contributed knowledge about the historical and likely future variability in fire frequency and severity in various forest types, landscape dynamics, and how landscape resilience works. Many forests are now homogenized, with conditions no longer resembling those that existed prior to Euro-American settlement. Disturbance regimes have become more severe in many places, causing widespread ripple effects. The area burned by wildfire will continue to increase under climate change, and disturbance regimes will change further, leading to even broader changes in forest structure and species composition. Moderate or severe fires or fuel treatments, coupled with maintenance burning, may be needed to remove local seed sources and competition from undesirable shade-tolerant trees and help some patches of forest better adapt to fire and climate change. Proactive management can help facilitate some transitions, leading to better outcomes for people, forests, and native species. Keywords: Climate change adaptation, landscape restoration, wildfire vulnerability, remnant large trees, old forests, old-growth associated species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]