To the Airport

Today was my last day teaching the monks and nuns.  I still have many stories to post on this blog, but they will have to wait until I return home.  Kelly and I are headed for the Bangalore airport in about 2 hours for the long flight home to Seattle.  I will add to this blog when I go through the many pictures and notes I have taken throughout these two weeks.

This experience in India has been great...one of the rare chances to teach, learn and share with a unique group of people.  I know that the friendships I have made with everyone here will continue long into the future.

Journey into Bangalore

Earlier this week, Kelly and I were able to venture into the main city of Bangalore because I did not teach until the afternoon.  Our driver, Danesh, picked us up in front of our building on the campus of the Tibetan Children's Village College at 7:45 am.  The drive into Bangalore was fine until we hit the city -- then it was traffic, traffic and more traffic.  Dodging cows, goats, carts, scooters, bicycles, people, buses, motorcycles, motorized rickshaws and other cars must make driving in Bangalore one of the most difficult places in the world.  But Danesh knew the way and although we had some close calls, all was fine.

In Bangalore, we first visited the Hindu Bull Temple (photo) and then next door, the Hindu Ganesh Temple.  From there, we went to the Botanical Gardens.  These gardens are set in a huge park in the middle of the city.  There are huge trees and many different plants and shrubs to see.  We must have seen only a fraction of the park.

The Botanical Gardens also was hosting a flower show.  Many of the plants in the show are also native to where I live in Seattle.  For example, many of the plants exhibited were petunias.  Petunias are plants that I have in my own garden every year.  The flower show also hosted many trade tables set up with gardening and plant supplies from around the region. 

After the plant show, it was time for a little shopping.  First we went to Commerical Street.  At Commerical Street, I took 3 steps out of the car, stepped in a hole and sprained my ankle.  But there was no time to stop.  On we went.  We entered a few shops, but did not find anything we wanted.  On the way back to the car, we treated ourselves to some ice cream:  Kelly ordered "The Titanic" and I ordered "The World Cup."  We had no idea what flavors these were, but were pleasantly suprised with the fancy creations served up to us.

Our next shopping area was MG Road and Brigade Road.  This area was a bit nicer than Commerical Street and Kelly found a few items to bring back to the States as gifts.

By the time we finished, it was time to leave because I had to get back to teach at 2 pm.  Again we hit Bangalore traffic, but I made it back in time!

A Gift!

A few nights ago, Bryce Johnson, the Science for Monks program director, knocked on our door.  He had a special gift for us:  an electric heat coil.  What is so great about an electric heat coil?  You can heat water with it:  a bucket of water!  A bucket of hot water = a hot shower!  Just fill up a bucket with water, drop the heat coil in the water and plug it into the wall (see photo).  Just don't test the water when the coil is plugged in -- you might electrocute yourself.

Back in Touch

We were able to get back to touch and "touch on" pain during class on Wednesday.  The monks and nuns immediately tested the sensitivity of their skin to a piece of string and then created a body map using the two-point discrimination test.  As expected, they found the fingers and face to be most sensitive and these same areas had the best ability to make fine discriminations.  There was a little time left in class to begin a discussion of taste and smell.

Sleep and Dreams

My two teaching sessions on Tuesday were devoted to sleep and dreaming.  During the first session, we discussed how sleep can be measured, the phases of sleep, developmental changes in the phases of sleep and some differences in how animals sleep.  This discussion prepared the monastics for a lecture by Dr. Ravindra Nagindra, a professor at a local Bangalore University who studies the effects of meditation on sleep.  He presented data showing how people who meditate have increased durations of REM sleep.  A lively discussion followed this presentation with many questions from the monks about the purpose of sleep and the meaning of dreams.

On the Road

Sunday morning was the start of a another amazing adventure.  At 8 am, we boarded a bus with 35 Tibetan monks and nuns for a "field trip" to Sera Monestery.  As we all piled into the bus, we said "Goodbye" to Geshe Lhakdor who was off to give several talks in other parts of India.

Once on the bus, the monks all brought out their cameras and took photos and videos of each other.  Some had iPods or other music devices and blasted what sounded like Tibetan pop music.

The Sera Monestery is very large, with about 2,000 Tibetan Buddhist monks.  It is located west of the large city of Mysore, approximately 4.5 hours from the Tibetan Childrens Village College where we were staying in Bangalore.

Halfway to the monestery, we stopped for tea.  this was welcomed by everyone as a chance to stretch our legs and get something to drink.  Then it was back on the bus for the final ride to Sera Monestery.  Many of the monks brought out snacks to share with everyone.  I especially liked the pineapple chips.

At the Sera Monestery, we were welcomed by Geshe Gima, who I met last May in Bir, India, during the first workshop with this group of monks.  He ushered us to the guest quarters where we dropped off our bags and freshened up after the long bus trip.

After this short break, we headed off as a group to explore Sera Jey Monestery.  Some of our monks make this monestery their home and showed off their science room that they had created.  We also visited their temple as well as the place where they hand make their bread.  Next to Sera Jey Monestery is Sera Mei Monestery.  Again, we visited the science room set up by different monks who were at the workshop.

But this was just the beginning!  We reboarded the bus, and traveled a few miles to the Golden Temple (photo to right).  One of our monks had the key to one section of the temple that is not open to the public.  We got a special tour of this temple and were able to climb up to the very top section.

When we exited this section of the temple, we became the objects of great curiousity to the Indian tourists.  Men wanted to have their pictures taken with Kelly right by their side.  At first, Kelly declined, but the tourists were very persistent.  Finally (and unfortunately) she allowed one man to have his photo taken with her.  Suddenly everyone wanted a photo and Kelly fled to safety behind a wall of our monks and nuns who protected her.  When we stopped on a hill behind the temple to rest and have a snack, tourists sat down right beside us just to have their photos taken with us.  We appeared to be celebrities.  I think we were as interesting as the Golden Temple to them.

When we returned to Sera Monestery, the monks went one way and Geshe Gima took us another way back to the main temple where 2,000 monks were chanting.    We were able to observe the ceremony from the balcony overlooking the main floor.  As soon as we sat down, several monks brought us glasses of warm milk.  We were able to enjoy our drink as we listened to the low rumbling of 2,000 monks chanting in unison. 

The next day (Monday), everyone climbed back into the bus to visit several of our monks' monesteries on the way back to Bangalore.  I honestly cannot remember the names of the 4-5 different monesteries we visited.  However, each monestery was different and our host monks were very kind and gracious, offering us personal tours and serving us lunch or drinks and snacks.

We did not make it back to Bangalore until 8 pm.  We were lucky that there was a Tibetan Childrens Village College graduation party going on, so we joined the festivities and had dinner and then watched a Tibetan talent show.  I was very tired after this long, two day trip, but the memories I have will last a lifetime.

Global View

In addition to learning neuroscience, the monks and nuns are learning about the environment and climate change.  Tory Brady and Lori Lambertson, science educators from the Exploratorium in San Francisco, are here in Bangalore with many hands-on experiments and demonstrations to illustrate climate change and provide ideas for the monks on other topics such as perception.  Climate change will be the focus of an exhibit that the monastics will put together with the help of Tracie Spinale from the Smithsonian Institution.

New Friend

Saturday, January 21, 8:30 pm

My daughter, Kelly, and I have been able to talk with many of the monks and nuns and Tibetan translators.  All of the people we have met have been very warm and friendly.  Kelly also made a special friend with Rosette Jean, a 94-year-old French woman who lives in Dharamsala, India and who is a longtime friend of Geshe Lhakdor.    Yes, Rosette is 94 years old!  She says proudly that she was born in 1918.  Rosette heard that the workshop was taking place in Bangalore and decided it would be interesting, so she came down on her own.  I think she enjoys the warm weather compared to the cold weather in northern India.

Another Debate

Saturday, January 21, 2012, 8:00 pm

This morning the monks engaged in another debate about a neuroethical question.  This time they debated whether knowing about the possibility of contracting a neurological disorder was good or bad.  In other words, would you want to know if you would come down with a neurological disease some time in the future?  Would it depend on the type of disease and whether it could be cured?  Would it depend on the probability of getting the disease or when you might get it?

We again had two people in each of two teams.  Each person gave opening arguments and then had a chance to question the opposing team.  Then each team was challenged by the others in the room who listened to the arguments.  Like our last debate, things got a bit heated, but it was all in a good spirit.

After the debate, we started our discussion of touch and pain.  I explained how environmental stimuli activate different receptors in the skin and how this information is transmitted to the spinal cord.  We also talked about the central pathways involved with touch and the “homunculus.”  By the end of this talk, it was time to break for tea.

The tea break gave me a chance to set up for touch activities and demonstrations.  When everyone got back from tea, we started by attempting to discriminate two grades of sandpaper when they were placed lightly on the skin or when they were rubbed against the skin.  The second experiment was one of tactile threshold.  With a piece of string, the monks and nuns tested various places on their body’s to determine when they noticed the sensation of the string touching their skin.  The final activity was to make raised letters or words using rice and a glue stick.  According to Geshe Lhakdor, there are very few Braille translations of Tibetan.  The monks would create some of the first such materials!  The monastics first wrote Tibetan letters or words on paper with a pencil and then used a glue stick to trace the pencil marks.  Then they used rice grains to raise the outline of their work.  We gave the finished product time to dry and then traded the words and letters to see if others could guess what was written on the paper using only the sense of touch.

Dinner tonight was excellent again:  rice, sauce with tofu-like, cheesy, squares, bitter squash and what else...dal.

Bugging Out

Saturday, January 21, 2012; 3:00 pm

It seems like our bug problem has decreased.  When we first moved into our living quarters at the Tibetan Children’s Village College, our apartment had many ants and spiders.  For the most part, our “uninvited roommates” have moved out.  Nevertheless, I still shake my clothes before I put them on.

Ting-Mo for lunch today...with dal.

Weather Forecast is for Sun

Saturday, January 21, 2012, 9:00 am

The weather here has been the same everyday.  The morning starts out cool with a temperature around 70 degrees.  Looking to the east, each morning, I see the sun rising over the horizon like a fried egg.

By midday, it is very hot.  I estimate that at 1 pm the temperature is between 85 and 90 degrees.  It is not humid at all.

I just learned that it is snowing in Seattle!

Sunrise over Bangalore

End of Week One!

Last night I woke up to the sound of a terrible dog fight.  It must have been 2 am.  Outside a pack of dogs was growling, barking and howling.  The noise went on for 5-10 minutes, but I was able to go back to sleep when the dogs had had enough.

Friday morning started with a 7 am breakfast of flat bread, yogurt/granola, not unlike my breakfast in Seattle.  After a bit of preparation time for my class, I took the 10 minute stroll up the path to the teaching building.  The monastics were already busy writing in their journals.

At 9:30 am, I took questions from the monastics about the previous day's class.  They had questions about visual illusions, infrared vision in snakes and the role of calcium in the release of neurotransmitters.  I had to stop the questions or we would never get to the material I had planned to cover.

We immediately launched into activities about depth perception.  They started by lining up two corks at the same distance from each other.  As expected, they found it was easier to judge distance using two eyes.  We followed this activity by gathering in an open room where I had set up four plastic containers.  The monks and nuns were divided into four teams and were stationed about 7 feet from the containers.  Each person in a team attempted to toss their corks into the container, first using two eyes, and then using only one eye.  Everyone had fun watching who made and who missed the basket.  They were also careful to make sure each person was the same distance from the container.

After tea, we started a discussion about hearing.  This included how changes in air pressure push on the eardrum and how this energy is carried to the cochlea where hair cells generate electrical signals that go to the brain.  I learned that the Tibetan word for cochlea is "Dragon."  Tempa, a senior monk, continued the lesson by illustrating how changes in frequency are related to pitch.

I finished the hearing activities with a game to demonstrate how two ears help us localize sound.  The monks formed a semicircle in the room while I chose one monk to be the experimental subject.  That monk blindfolded himself with part of his robe so he could not see.  I then gave a tuning fork to one of the monks in the semicircle.  When I pointed at that monk, he rang it.  The blindfolded monk had to point to the monk who he thought had the tuning fork.  With two ears, the blindfolded monk had little problem pointing in the direction of the sound.  However, with only one ear, the blindfolded monk was off by 8-10 monks!  We repeated the experiment several times with different monks ringing the tuning fork.  Everyone found this experiment to be very interesting.

The class ended with a neuroethical question that we will debate tomorrow morning:  what would happen is we were able to predict that a person would have a neurological disease?

More Dal

Thursday, January 19, 2012, 10:00 pm

Lunch today was a bit of a surprise.  Instead of dal and rice, we had dal and a doughy puff ball called something like Ting-Mo. Lunch also came cooked eggplant that was quite tasty.  And dinner was excellent:  a soup with cooked vegetables on the side.

Mo-Mos

Thursday, January 19, 2012, 2:00 pm

Last night the cook prepared Mo-Mos for the group.  Mo-Mo is a Tibetan dumpling that is filled with a mixture of mutton and vegetables and then steamed.  They are eaten after they are dipped in chili sauce.  Everyone ate their fill and then had papaya for dessert.

During the first classroom session in the morning, we started with questions.  One monk asked about conjoined twins and if they had one or two brains.  I explained that conjoined twins were quite rare, but sometimes they are attached at the head with two brains that are somewhat independent of each other.

We then went into another neuroethical debate.  This time I posed the question about the use of machines, such as a brain scan, that might some day be able to read thoughts.  Should this device be used to prevent crimes, detect lies in court, or be used during a job interview?  Is it acceptable to extract thoughts without a person’s consent even if it could save lives?  Like the debate yesterday, things get quite animated with each side providing their strongest arguments.

After the debate, we discussed the results from yesterday’s activities:  light through a magnifying lens and mapping the visual field with a protractor.  My impression is that the monks and nuns understand this information without a problem and they should have no trouble explaining these concepts to others.

The blindspot was the next topic we examined.  They had all done some basic experimentation with the blindspot in the previous workshop.  However, we went a bit further by using simple geometry to estimate the actual diameter of the optic disk.  I should have given the monastics more time to finish, but the numbers many of them calculated were all reasonable.  

After tea, we discussed central visual pathways.  They quickly were able to correctly determine the consequences of damage to various parts of the visual pathway from the retina to the primary visual cortex.  The monastics enjoyed many of the visual illusions that illustrate how the visual system operates.  These illusions should be good additions to their teaching boxes.

We ended the second session with depth perception and the benefits of having two eyes.  However, we did not get to the activities.  Rather, we will pick up with the activities the first thing tomorrow morning.

Class Is Finished For The Day

Quickly

January 19, Thursday, 9 am

A quick post before heading off to class.

Yesterday the monks and nuns started with a debate about neuroethics (nootropics) and then we turned our attention to vision.

Kelly spent most of last Tuesday in Bangalore with Geshe Lhakdor (photo) and the Tibetan translators.  Apparently the driver got lost numerous times and they spent a lot of time in the car.   But Kelly had a great time experiencing the city and enjoyed a nice Indian lunch with the group. 

Active Games

Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 5:30 pm

In today’s class, the monks learned how to play some active games to illustrate how neurons send signals.  We played Synaptic Tag and other outside games from the Neuroscience for Kids web site.  We also discussed hemispheric dominance and sidedness.  The monastics tested themselves for handedness, footedness, earedness and eyedness.  Suprisingly, every one of 30 the monastics reported that they were right-handed.  Apparently there is strong pressure for the Tibetans to be right handed and many who may be natural left-handers are forced to be right handed.  Although there was some bias for having a dominant right ear, foot and eye, it was not 100%.

The cook prepared pancakes for breakfast, but lunch at the cafeteria was once again…rice and dal.

Life at the Tibetan Children's Village College

Tuesday, January 17, 4 am

As you can see by this post and the one below, I have been waking up a bit early.  Adapting to the daily schedule here in India will likely take some time.  We had a brief power outage last night and still do not have any hot water for showers.  Bryce has said that they are trying to set up a wireless router in a classroom so we can access the Internet.  I have been typing these blog posts in WORD and plan to post them when we finally get Internet access.

The day starts at 6:30 am when we wake up.  Breakfast is served at 7 am downstairs in the building where we sleep.  The program has hired a cook to prepare our breakfast and dinner.  We eat lunch in the main college eating area (photo on right), but the only thing served in that area is rice and dal.  Dal is made from cooked lentils and it tastes fine, but I am not sure how well I would do on a two week, breakfast-lunch-dinner diet of rice and dal.  So far, our special program cook has been able to prepare a good variety of food.

My daughter Kelly hopes to go into town with several of the translators to help them shop for supplies.  I have told Kelly to stay close to them and not wander away from them.  I’ll give her a phone number in case of emergency.  The Tibetan Children’s Village College is not located near any stores, so cars must be used to buy food and other materials.  It should be a great experience for Kelly and maybe she can find a replacement for our poor little hot pot.        

Workshop Day 1

Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 3:30 am

Monday, January 16, was the first full day of the Science for Monks Workshop.   Classes are held in the main instruction building a 10 minute walk from our sleeping quarters. 

So far, 23 monks and 3 nuns have arrived and 5 more monastics are expected to arrive later.  Tori and Lori, two science educators from the Exploratorium, arrived in the morning to join us too.  Geshe Lhakdor, the director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamshala, India, gave a welcome speech to everyone to set the stage for the workshop.  Geshe Lhakdor was the Dalai Lama’s personal translator for 16 years and is a well-respected leader in the Tibetan community.

After the speech, Tori, Lori, Bryce, Kelly and I gave short introductions about who we are and our plans for the workshop.  Then we watched a video of a speech given last month by the Dalai Lama.  We had Karma, one of the Tibetan translators, translate the Tibetan into English so we could understand.  In his speech, the Dalai Lama described why he thought it was important that people learn science.

Each workshop day is scheduled divided into four 1.5 hour blocks.  Breakfast is served at 7 am and then the first block starts at 9:30 am and ends at 11 am.  After a tea break, the second block starts at 11:30 am and ends at 1 pm.  The third block starts at 2:30 pm and goes to 4 pm, followed by another tea break, then the fourth block from 4:30 pm to 6 pm.  Dinner is served at 7 pm.

The tea breaks are very important, especially to the monks.  It gives everyone a chance to stretch and relax a bit.  The tea we drink is a traditional Tibetan brew:  it is very sweet with milk and some spices that I cannot identify.  I told my daughter Kelly to watch them prepare it so she can duplicate the recipe.  Apparently, it is not simple to make correctly.

During my teaching block, I explained what I had been doing since the last workshop in May.  With a translator at my side, I told the monastics about the new Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering where I work and about my new project to investigate the neuroactive properties of medicinal plants and herbs.  I encouraged them to let me know if they know of any plants that I could use in my work.  We then did a very quick review of neurotransmission.

Poor Little Hot Pot

Monday, January 26, 2012, 2 am

The last time I was in India I took note about how convenient it was to have a small electric hot pot to boil water.  Not only would the hot pot provide a good source of drinkable water, it would also allow me to have a nice cup of coffee in the morning.

Before I left Seattle, I searched everywhere for a portable electric hot pot.  I looked everywhere:  online, department stores, grocery stores, drug stores to find this treasure.  Finally, I settled on a an 8 cup hot pot which was the smallest one I could get.  I tried it out in Seattle and it worked fine, boiling water in just a few minutes.  I even tried it at the hotel in Bangalore and it worked.

But I am sorry to say that my poor little hot pot has met its end.  The first time I tried it in my room at the Tibetan Children’s Village College it broke.  Water came to a boil quickly, but then it stopped working.  I think the problem was a voltage incompatibility:  the hot pot is rated for 110V but the electricity here in India is 220V.  Many electronics, such as most computers, can handle both voltages, but others, such as my hot pot, cannot.  

Little Friends

January 15, 2012, Sunday, 2 pm

Our sleeping quarters at the Tibetan Children’s Village College are quite spacious:  an apartment with a living room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen.  Plenty of room for two people.  Little did Kelly and I know that we would be sharing our space with many other friends:  friends of the 6 and 8 legged variety.

Although the room is somewhat clean, the bathrooms are home to many spiders.  These little guys do not appear to be of the dangerous type, but you never know.  We spent a good hour washing every corner of both bathrooms.  Small ants seem to have taken up residence in part of the space too, so we will keep all of our food locked away in plastic bags and containers.

We were offered another apartment but on inspection of the bathrooms in this new space…well, just use your imagination…we decided that our current apartment would be more than adequate!

Breakfast in Bangalore

January 15, 2012, Sunday, 2 pm

A driver was waiting at the airport to take Kelly and me to the Royal Orchid Resort and Convention Center Hotel on the outskirts of Bangalore  (photo to right is the view from the hotel balcony).  The hotel provided us with a nice place to catch a few hours of sleep after arriving in India.  We did not arrive at the hotel until 2 am. Unfortunately, the room did not have any hot water, so hopes of a nice warm shower after 24 hours of traveling were dashed.

The director of the Science for Monks program, Bryce Johnson, was staying in the room next to ours.  At about 8:30 am, we met Bryce for breakfast in the hotel restaurant.  The buffet-style breakfast was excellent with a choice of Indian and western foods to choose from.

At 10 am, we loaded our luggage into a car and headed off to the Tibetan Children’s Village College.  The drive took about an hour from the hotel.  We never ventured into the main part of Bangalore; instead we took a ring road around the city.

The Tibetan Children’s Village College is a collection of buildings on a large plot of land.  There are separate buildings for the Science for Monks program staff, college staff, women students and men students.  The cafeteria is located in its own building as are the classrooms.  (Left photo:  view of men's and women's living quarters)

On Sunday evening, we took a short walk through the college and discovered some outside basketball courts where a lively game with kids from the Tibetan college was taking place.  I’ll have to go back during the week and get in a game.

Arrived in Bangalore

Made it to Bangalore.  After a very long trip from Seattle to Paris to Bangalore, I am finally here in India.  Each leg of the flight was about 10 hours, with a 2 hour layover in Paris.

On the flight from Paris to Bangalore I experienced a new first.  An announcement came over the speaker system on the plane that the flight attendants were going to be coming through the cabin to spray pesticide!  I had never heard or seen anything about this before.  But sure enough, flight attendants holding two cans of spray above their heads, marched back and forth, up and down the entire plane.  The smell of the spray was not too bad, but it definitely smelled like a pesticide.

Next Stop Paris, Then Bangalore

The trip begins!  I am on my way to Bangalore, India for the Science for Monks workshop.  My daughter, Kelly, a third year college student at Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, is joining me.  That's us in the photo at the Seattle Airport.

We will take Air France to Paris, then change planes for the final flight to Bangalore.  It will take about 25 hours to get to India from Seattle and we are schedule to arrive in Bangalore after midnight.  I hope to get some sleep on the plane.  We will stay overnight in Bangalore and then drive out to the workshop location outside of the city.

One week!

My departure to India is just one week away.  I am still working on creating lessons and collecting supplies for all of the activities.  The science educators from the Smithsonian and the Exploratorium who will join me are bringing many supplies with them and we will purchase some supplies after we arrive.

I am probably overambitious in my planning and it is likely that I am trying to do too much.  The last time I was teaching this group I fell behind in my schedule because I did not take into account the time it took to translate what I said into Tibetan.  I hope to do a better job this time!