scholarly journals Futurist in Physiology: In Celebration of the 120th Birthday of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bernstein

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 39-47
Author(s):  
I.E. Sirotkina
Keyword(s):  
Conditioned Reflex ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Cognitive Sciences ◽  
Kinesthetic Imagination ◽  
Modern Russian

The paper is dedicated to the 120th birthday of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bernstein (1896—1966), a prominent Russian physiologist who contributed also to other fields of knowledge, for instance, cognitive sciences and modeling of biological systems. This study is based on the analysis of various publications and archive materials, including interviews with Bernstein’s disciples conducted by the author in the late 1980s. The paper outlines the ideas and concepts of Bernstein that were well ahead of their time, anticipating research on movement control by at least a hundred years. It also analyses the differences between Bernstein’s theory of movement construction and Pavlov’s theory of conditioned reflex and gives a brief review of the development of Bernstein’s ideas in modern Russian neuroscience. As it is shown, the now popular concept of “kinesthetic imagination” obviously corresponds with Bernstein’s concepts of “movement task” and “model of the desired future”.

The Engineer

Rebel Genius ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tara H. Abraham
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Reticular Formation ◽  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Theoretical Modelling ◽  
Research Culture ◽  
Cognitive Sciences ◽  
New Research ◽  
Scientific Identity ◽  
The Brain

This chapter examines the ways that McCulloch’s new research culture at MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics shaped the evolution of his scientific identity into that of an engineer. This was an open, fluid, multidisciplinary culture that allowed McCulloch to shift his focus more squarely onto understanding the brain from the perspective of theoretical modelling, and to promote the cybernetic vision to diverse audiences. McCulloch’s practices, performed with a new set of student-collaborators, involved modeling the neurophysiology of perception, understanding reliability in biological systems, and pursuing knowledge of the reticular formation of the brain. The chapter provides a nuanced account of the relations between McCulloch’s work and the emerging fields of artificial intelligence and the cognitive sciences. It also highlights McCulloch’s identities as sage-collaborator and polymath, two roles that in part were the result of his students’ observations and in part products of his own self-fashioning.

scholarly journals Robert Rosen’s relationalist understanding of biological states and quantum mechanics

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-21
Author(s):  
Slobodan Perovic
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Quantum States ◽  
Cognitive Sciences ◽  
Robert Rosen

Robert Rosen?s intriguing ideas of a formalized framework to understand biological systems have been discussed across the life and cognitive sciences. Yet his crude account of physical states, quantum states in particular, seems to be irreconcilable with his account of biological states, thus preventing a pursuit of his framework as a general ontological account. A more subtle understanding of quantum states, however, leaves room for a relationalist understanding of physical states in general agreement with Rosen?s framework of biological states.

Transmission Electron Microscopy of Protein Macromolecules

1971 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 424-425
Author(s):  
Henry S. Slayter
Keyword(s):  
Biological Systems ◽  
Metal Vapor ◽  
Resolving Power ◽  
Electron Microscopic ◽  
Chemical Methods ◽  
Molecular Weights ◽  
The Past ◽  
Physical Chemical ◽  
Transmission Electron

Electron microscopic methods have been applied increasingly during the past fifteen years, to problems in structural molecular biology. Used in conjunction with physical chemical methods and/or Fourier methods of analysis, they constitute powerful tools for determining sizes, shapes and modes of aggregation of biopolymers with molecular weights greater than 50, 000. However, the application of the e.m. to the determination of very fine structure approaching the limit of instrumental resolving power in biological systems has not been productive, due to various difficulties such as the destructive effects of dehydration, damage to the specimen by the electron beam, and lack of adequate and specific contrast. One of the most satisfactory methods for contrasting individual macromolecules involves the deposition of heavy metal vapor upon the specimen. We have investigated this process, and present here what we believe to be the more important considerations for optimizing it. Results of the application of these methods to several biological systems including muscle proteins, fibrinogen, ribosomes and chromatin will be discussed.

Freeze-fracture cytochemistry: A goal set by Russell Steere in 1957

1993 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 60-61
Author(s):  
Nicholas J Severs
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Nature ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Freeze Fracture ◽  
Structural Components ◽  
Major Goal ◽  
Membrane Biology ◽  
Routine Application ◽  
The Future ◽  
Freeze Etching

In his pioneering demonstration of the potential of freeze-etching in biological systems, Russell Steere assessed the future promise and limitations of the technique with remarkable foresight. Item 2 in his list of inherent difficulties as they then stood stated “The chemical nature of the objects seen in the replica cannot be determined”. This defined a major goal for practitioners of freeze-fracture which, for more than a decade, seemed unattainable. It was not until the introduction of the label-fracture-etch technique in the early 1970s that the mould was broken, and not until the following decade that the full scope of modern freeze-fracture cytochemistry took shape. The culmination of these developments in the 1990s now equips the researcher with a set of effective techniques for routine application in cell and membrane biology.Freeze-fracture cytochemical techniques are all designed to provide information on the chemical nature of structural components revealed by freeze-fracture, but differ in how this is achieved, in precisely what type of information is obtained, and in which types of specimen can be studied.

Seeking to uncover biology's chemical roots

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 435-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Addy Pross
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Significant Development ◽  
The Road ◽  
Physical Chemical ◽  
Systems Chemistry ◽  
Biological World ◽  
Inanimate Matter ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Opening Up

Despite the considerable advances in molecular biology over the past several decades, the nature of the physical–chemical process by which inanimate matter become transformed into simplest life remains elusive. In this review, we describe recent advances in a relatively new area of chemistry, systems chemistry, which attempts to uncover the physical–chemical principles underlying that remarkable transformation. A significant development has been the discovery that within the space of chemical potentiality there exists a largely unexplored kinetic domain which could be termed dynamic kinetic chemistry. Our analysis suggests that all biological systems and associated sub-systems belong to this distinct domain, thereby facilitating the placement of biological systems within a coherent physical/chemical framework. That discovery offers new insights into the origin of life process, as well as opening the door toward the preparation of active materials able to self-heal, adapt to environmental changes, even communicate, mimicking what transpires routinely in the biological world. The road to simplest proto-life appears to be opening up.

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