News

Jonathan Weiner

22 May, 2015, 2.30 pm

SISSA, Room 128

12 e 26 maggio 2015, dalle 9.30 alle 12.30

SISSA, Aula 128/129 

Grid cells, space-mapping neurons of the entorhinal cortex of rodents, could also work for hyperbolic surfaces. A SISSA study just published in Interface, the journal of the Royal Society, tests a model (a computer simulation) based on mathematical principles, that explains how maps emerge in the brain and shows how these maps adapt to the environment in which the individual develops.

By using “unusual” optic fibres in a novel fashion, an international team of researchers led by the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste, scrutinized the response to light of rods, the light-sensitive cells of the retina, and demonstrated that the intensity of response varies according to the region of the cell hit by the light.

Introducing flaws into liquid crystals by inserting microspheres and then controlling them with electrical fields: that, in a nutshell, is the rationale behind a method that could be exploited for a new generation of advanced materials, potentially useful for optical technologies, electronic displays and e-readers.

Collaborators and friends of John Nicholls, pioneer of neurobiology studies and Professor at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste, celebrate the publication of his autobiographical book “Pioneers of Neurobiology: My Brilliant Eccentric Heroes”, a very personal take on the evolution of neurobiology, but especially on the protagonists of this field of research, today one of the most important in neuroscience. The event is open to the public and will be held in English.

June 29-30, 2015

SISSA, Big Meeting Room, 7th floor

Via Bonomea 265, Trieste

SISSA will host a workshop entitled “Semantic processing and its disorders” in honor of Prof. Tim Shallice. Alfonso Caramazza, Maria Gorno-Tempini, Alex Martin, Morris Moscovitch, Matthew Lambon-Ralph, David Plaut, Caterina Silveri, Lorraine Tyler, Gabriella Vigliocco and others will attend the event. 

Recommendation: If you intend to attend the meeting please send an email to lpiretti@sissa.it

23 aprile 2015, 9.30 – 13.30

SISSA, aula 128/129

Via Bonomea 268, Trieste

We learn how our world works by observing the frequency of events: if (almost) every time I press a button a light comes on, by repeating the same experience over and over again I will learn that to turn on the light I need to press that button. In addition to this sort of “statistical evaluation” of observed events, there is another very powerful instrument that the brain uses for learning and that sometimes clashes with the former: communication.

Il giornalismo digitale richiede competenze specifiche. La SISSA propone un intervento di Paolo Omero, docente di Tecnologie web all’Università di Udine, che approfondirà i vari aspetti di questo ambito in continua mutazione, utili a tutti i giornalisti, non solo a coloro che già lavorano nelle redazioni online.

The School aims to provide practical and theoretical training on the application of a large spectrum of techniques to neuroscience. The course will have sessions with tutorial lectures and sessions with hands-on practicals. 

Fare il giornalista oggi significa anche saper maneggiare (e raccontare) dati: cercare le fonti giuste, destreggiarsi con le statistiche, creare infografiche, ma non solo. Anche quest’anno il Master in Comunicazione della Scienza “Franco Prattico” della SISSA propone una scuola dedicata al data journalism.

Designed to detect the fossil radiation of the Universe, the Planck satellite, working in tandem with Herschel, can also help to understand the macrostructure of the Universe. A just-published experimental study, carried out with the participation of SISSA, has detected astronomical sources that may be precursors to galaxy clusters, the largest dynamically stable structures existing in the Universe. These primitive elements have long been sought by astrophysicists since they are crucial for tracing the development of the Universe’s macrostructures.

The hope is to be able, one day, to fight the pathogenic action of the amyloid-beta protein, whose build-up is associated with Alzheimer’s disease. In the meantime, scientists (including a group from the International School for Advanced Studies, SISSA, in Trieste) have synthesised the knowledge acquired about this protein over the last few decades in a review paper that is destined to become a milestone for future research.

By using an innovative yet simple technique, a team of Italian research scientists (from SISSA in Trieste, the University of Trieste and IIT in Genova) have managed to obtain an in vitro culture of primary neurons (and astrocytes) that is genuinely three-dimensional. The neural network showed a more complex function than its two-dimensional counterparts. The structure is also the first to incorporate carbon nanotubes, which promote the formation of synapses among the neurons in the culture. The study has been published in Scientific Reports.

Guido Martinelli, Director of the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste, has been appointed to the Scientific Policy Committee of CERN in Geneva, a prestigious appointment given solely on the basis of scientific competence. The appointment of the School’s Director confirms once again the high international standing of SISSA’s scientific personnel.

SISSA has received European Community funding equivalent to 18 million hours of supercomputing, corresponding to almost half the hours that the SISSA supercomputer, inaugurated last September, can provide in a whole year. The grant was awarded thanks to a research project in particle physics. SISSA is placing high stakes on high performance computing, as also confirmed by the second edition of the Master in High Performance Computing (MHPC) which has just opened enrolments.

Trefoil, Savoy, or simple … how do you fashion a “molecular” knot that has one of these shapes? Or better still, what are the most suitable “building blocks” for enabling the knot to assemble itself? A team of scientists coordinated by the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste has studied and catalogued the shapes that molecular building blocks should have so as to be able to assemble spontaneously into knots having specific forms, each with a possible utility in nanotechnology. The study has been published in Nature Communications.

At the origin of the properties of high-temperature superconductors lies a phenomenon that is too fast to be observed experimentally with conventional methods.