Jonah Lehrer discusses the future of science and art.

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Jonah Lehrer spoke last Tuesday at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and tried to answer the question ‘what makes good art good art?’ and how the answer to that question may provide insight into the world of science.

The question itself is as old as ancient Greece and as essential as ‘what makes us human?’ or ‘why are we here?’ Lehrer takes a new look at the question using his background as a neuroscientist.

Lehrer, a Rhodes Scholar who attended Columbia and Oxford Universities, said that great art is great because it is particularly engaging to our mind.

“The larger question I’m trying to get at here is trying to see how art can benefit from asking these kinds of scientific questions…why is this Jackson Pollock, this paint dripped haphazardly on a canvas, why is that meaningful?, why is that worth a hundred million dollars?, why do we find that beautiful?, what can that teach us about the visual cortex?”

“The basic assumption behind asking these kinds of questions is that great art is not an accident, that it works for a reason, and that by reverse engineering the art, by trying to figure out why we still look and at Jackson Pollock or read Hamlet or whatever, you can learn something interesting about the brain.”

Lehrer uses music as an example. In particular Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” which caused a riot upon its first performance in France in 1913. The piece is known for it’s unpredictability, and outright rebellion against the rules of traditional music.

“There is a small circuit of cells in the auditory cortex called the cortical fugal network…these neurons do something very interesting…when you play these cells a new set of sounds…at first these cells get very confused they emit what’s called a prediction error signal, it’s their way of saying…‘we can’t find the pattern here’.”

But then when you play these same cells the same sound a few times, they learn to make sense of it, all of the sudden this thing which seemed so disturbing…now begins to make sense.”

“The Rite of Spring” is now a popular piece of music played throughout the world, and the soundtrack for part of Disney’s ‘Fantasia’.

Lehrer said newer artists like Kanye West and Girl Talk are using basically the ‘same bag of tricks’ as artists like Stravinsky and Beethoven. Both contemporary music artists use samples and repeat them in complex or unpredictable ways.

The concept is relatively easy to understand if you think about elevator music as opposed to a Beethoven symphony. Elevator music may be pleasant and unjarring, but you would probably never choose to listen to elevator music because it isn’t very interesting or engaging.

Lehrer also spoke about the art of food, by using the example of French chef Escoffier, who’s style of cooking is the basis for French cooking today.

“When Escoffier first started cooking like this…it was, simply put, the best thing anyone had ever tasted.”

At the time nobody knew why it tasted so good, until 1907 when a Japanese scientist named Kikunae Ikeda, who did research on food, realized there was a taste sensation that could not be accounted for with the traditional taste sensations: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.

Ikeda discovered what made some food taste so good was a compound called Glutamate, which is in things like aged cheese, prosciutto, and foods like the ones Escoffier cooked.

People at the time didn’t believe him, or thought his findings were completely uninteresting for nearly 100 years. Recently, new studies of the tongue revealed a taste receptor specifically for glutamate. Now scientists believe it may be the most important taste receptor.

This particular example has obvious implications, that by paying attention to why art is so intriguing to us, we can learn something important about how our brain works. Lehrer believes not only that the two fields can teach each other things, but that one can cover areas of understanding the other can not.

“The one reality [neuroscience] can’t describe, the reality of this here-and-now subjective experience, is the only one we’ll ever know. That, I believe, is why we need art. I think artists are adept at describing experience in terms of experience, they describe the flux the feel, the texture of reality in a way that only great art can.”

Where is Palin now?

There had been a lot of talk around the election about what John McCain’s VP pic, Alaska Governor Sara Palin would be doing after the election if she was not filling the VP post, and what her plans for the future may be.

Here’s what we know

• She was rumoured to be after the Senate seat of Ted Stevens, who, if he were elected, would have had a special election to determine who would fill his post. His democratic rival Mark Begich, won narrowly, so that never happened.
• She has hinted at a possible run for the presidency in 2012, saying it would be good for the GOP to have a woman on the ticket.
• Clearly many people still see Palin as the future of the republican party with new, pro-palin ads running in Alaska, and coming soon to a station near you.
• Palin has said publicly that she wasn’t seeking election to the senate or a White house bid, but she is leaving the door wide-open with comments like “Well, life is very unpredictable, and that’s the excitement of life. You never know what is around the next corner.”

So Palin’s popularity is sure to keep her in the spotlight for at least a little longer, and because she’s such a good media story I expect that anything she does in the next four years will be analyzed by somebody for its relation to her advancing career.

Right now, it’s all up to her, she has a tremendous opportunity to take advantage of, and if she really comes on the scene and makes an effort to become involved with national and international politics, I don’t see why she couldn’t make a run at the White house or the senate sooner than later. I think Palin 2012 is a little far-fetched, but you never know.

Obama’s vetting process ‘extremely invasive’

Obama has been picking the people that will be in his administration for the next four years, and according to many, the vetting process is the most intense in history.

This is leading to a number of qualified candidates being turned away, or taking themselves out of the picture because of the invasiveness of the whole process.

The most high profile case being Hilary Clinton. Though now it appears that she will accept the position of secretary of state, offered to her by Obama, there were questions circulating about weather Bill Clinton’s finances would prove a roadblock in the vetting process.

Other’s like Penny Pritzker, who was an Obama fundraisers took herself out of the running because of the invasive questioning.

Some of the questions, according to CBS.com include things like “embarrassing e-mails, text messages, diary entries and Facebook profiles, Gifts worth more than $50, other than those from relatives and long-standing friends, family members with connections to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG or any other company receiving a federal bailout.”

In addition to others on a 63-quetsion questionnaire, not to mention and FBI background check

It’s unclear if this is a good move or not for Obama, although it seems to me that as long as you don’t mind narrowing the field, there’s no reason not to vet people as intensely as possible. We can all think back to Bush’s selection of Bernard Kerik to be the homeland security secretary. Kerik was forced to withdraw his name after it became public that he employed an illegal immigrant and had some questionable business dealings

As CNN noted, Obama’s presidential and primary campaign was notable for its lack of gaffes or embarrassing moments, a trend I’m sure he would like to continue throughout his administration. This vetting process may be the best insurance against the unexpected, if there is such a thing in politics.

Obama’s lose-lose automaker bailout

In the recent debate about the “Big Three” U.S. automakers bailout, Obama has mostly tried to avoid the question. He is lucky in the sense that this problem still falls in Bush’s lap, so he can get away with doing nothing. 

Obama has advocated for some form a bailout for the Big Three, but he is in a lose-lose situation.

He must be for bailout, because he promised on the trail to help blue-collar workers in the big automaking states, and also said he wanted to turn the auto industry in the U.S. into a green industry and create new jobs. It’s going to be hard to do that if there are no more automakers

On the other hand, the bailout money will probably not go into creating new jobs, and end up as more of a shot in the arm for a failing industry.

Obama’s best hope is that he can give as little money as possible to the auto industry to keep them going until he can try to implement some sort of change in the industry when he takes office. Or try to attach some stipulations to the bailout money involving green-job creation.

Rahm Emanuel in Obama’s White house

The Obama campaign has just recently started making political appointments. First was his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.

Emanuel was chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Comittiee , and credited with some of the success of the democrats in 2006, but is known as being fairly partisan and cutthroat (it was reported, among other things, that he sent a dead fish to a pollster who crossed him) He was also a (Bill) Clinton adviser.

People on both the left and the right are talking about how divisive Emanuel can be and how his appointment is runs counter to Obama’s promise of reaching across the aisle.

Not to mention the “who do you know” game is already being played, as Emanuel’s father was part of a military Zionist group.

Obama probably made the pick because Emanuel, aside from everything else, is known for getting things done, and while his presence may be opposite to Obama’s bi-partisan efforts, Obama needs somebody to get things done in his administration. Without some strength pushing from the left in Obama’s White house, Obama may be worried about getting pushed around too much in an effort to please both sides.

In that sense Emanuel is a good pick, and while those on the right may decry it for exactly the same reasons (Obama is getting Emanuel to do his dirty work) it is nonetheless a prudent move by Obama.

But tell us how you really feel, about Palin.

This story broke shortly after the election. Many people had been wondering what the McCain campaign really thought of Sara Palin after reports surfaced that there was tension between their respective aides.

Apparently, McCain aides weren’t too fond of Palin, mad at her for a number of reasons, most notably, the clothing incident, the Africa country incident, and the French president incident.

Palin reacted by calling most of her gaffes misunderstandings, and said it was ‘mean spirited’ of the McCain aides to criticize her in that way. McCain himself apparently told the aides to stop talking about Palin negatively.

It’s hard to separate fact from fiction here, but since none of the McCain aides will go on record, I would assume there is at least a fair amount of fiction to a number of their claims, more likely they are bitter about the loss, happy to scapegoat Palin, and perhaps regret their choice of a fairly questionable (especially in retrospect) VP candidate.

If you don’t like the weather…

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As the saying goes in New England, if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute. Unfortunately the outlook is the same even if the weather is good.

Tuesday October 27^th was six degrees above average and Wednesday the 28^th was six degrees below average, not to mention raining, in a perfect illustration of the old adage.

The campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst changes dramatically with the weather, on days where temperatures top 60 you get dozens of smiling people outside, girls and skirts and guys in shorts, there are nearly as many people on the library lawn as at library desks, and there is sure to be At least one frisbee flying across campus somewhere.

“I’ve been walking around and I’m really enjoying the weather,” said UMass student Cynthia Archambeau, who was sitting on the steps outside of the campus center studying. “I think it’s better [than usual] because typical New England weather could be anything.”

In contrast, colder weather around 50 degrees brings out the New Englander in students. Everybody breaks out their winter coats, scarves, and hats, and people venture outside only when necessary. Except between classes it is difficult to find students outside, and the campus resembles something of a ghost town, particularly in the rain where fewer students even get out of bed.

“On a rainy day, I’m probably going to stay inside in the dorm and watch movies, avoid going outside at all costs,” said Archambeau.

The rain and cold also makes travel around UMass more difficult.

“When it rains it’s just so much harder to get around,” said UMass student Jonathan Bett. “I usually fly around on my bike. The buses are nice, but the bus I was on today had almost nowhere to stand.”

Aesthetics are an important part of the university too though, said Bett.

“I’m a Japanese major and actually I had to show some visitors from a Japanese university around campus, so that kind of got in my way too.”

Bett said it was difficult to convince the international visitors that UMass was a beautiful campus with the empty pathways and grey skies.

Still, it can be argued that the weather changing at the drop of a hat makes New Englanders much more appreciative of the weather they do have.

“The weather today and yesterday have been great, it’s kind of like an Indian summer,” UMass student Rob Crory said Tuesday. “I’m studying for a test and enjoying it outside, I’m actually studying out here…You’ve got to enjoy it while it lasts because it’s going to get cold around here pretty soon.”