Genes, Computers, and Medicine Saturday, February 20, 2016 2:30-4:30 p.m. Past Event Watch the video » Developments in computational neuroscience, molecular biology, and genomics have opened up new ways of looking at disease. In a relatively short time span, these advances may lead to significant innovations in the understanding of various diseases, as well as in therapeutics designed to treat them.… read more »
The Meditative State Saturday, March 12, 2016 2:30 - 4:30 pm Past Event Watch the video » What is meditation? As difficult as it may be to define this state of mind, its beneficial effects on mental and physical health are incontrovertible. What are the respective roles of conscious and unconscious processes in this voluntarily invoked mental state?… read more »
Understanding Genius II: Women Saturday, March 26 2:30-4:30 pm Past Event Watch the video » Name five female geniuses off the top of your head. If you find yourself stumbling after Madame Curie, you are hardly alone. Why should this be when there is no shortage of brilliant, creative women, who are as numerous in history as they are today?… read more »
Fear: Wherefore, Whence? Saturday, May 7, 2016 2:30 - 4:30 pm Past Event Watch the video » Someone is shouting! Ho! Do you hear? Am I howling in vain? For if one is frightened, everything makes a noise! – Sophocles, Acrisius [fragment] …the sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues.… read more »
Happiness Saturday, September 24 2:30-4:30 pm Past Event Watch the video » Call no man happy until he is dead. – Solon of Athens (c. 640 – c. 560 BCE) “Happiness” may be understood in prosaic and philosophic senses: as referring to a moment of experience or the entirety of a life; as referring to a psychological state of mind, relating to pleasurable emotions, as well as referring to a life regarded as going well, flourishing, for the individual leading it, and as such, a prudential value judgement of ultimate goods.… read more »
The Electorate: 2016 (Cocktail Benefit Reception and Roundtable) Wednesday, September 28, 2016 6:00-8:00 pm Past Event What: Cocktail Benefit Reception and Roundtable Where: The Penn Club 30 West 44th Street New York, NY Participants: Janet Dewart Bell, Communications Strategist & Management Consultant Lester Crystal, MacNeil/Leher Productions – Retired President Michael Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Elizabeth Harris, Education Reporter for The New York Times Kesha Ram, Vermont State Legislator THE HELIX CENTER invites you to “The Electorate: 2016” A cocktail reception & roundtable benefit in memory of Themis and Theodore Dimon on Wednesday, September 28th, 2016 6:00 – 8:00 pm at The Penn Club 30 West 44th Street New York City Roundtable participants including: Janet Dewart Bell, Communications Strategist & Management Consultant Lester Crystal, Retired President, MacNeil Lehrer Productions Michael Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize Winning JournalistElizabeth Harris, Education Report for the New York Times Kesha Ram, Vermont State LegislatorBOARD OF DIRECTORS Sander Abend Antonio Beltramini Tony Low-Beer Antonio Magliocco Edward Nersessian Robert Penzer Albert Sax Charles Schaefer III Daniel Vasella EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Edward Nersessian, Director Robert Penzer, Associate Director Phillip Blumberg Anne-Marie Levine Ann-Louise Lipman Mary Luallen Adam Sacks Carla Solomon Beverley Zabriskie… read more »
Embodied AI Saturday, October 22, 2016 2:30-4:30 pm Past Event Watch the video » The increasing appreciation of the body’s role in cognition—that the brain-mind is embedded in a physical, sensory-motor system interacting with the real world—is shedding the dualistic straitjacket that has characterized “classical” artificial intelligence research. So, as proposed by Grady Booch, let’s imagine unleashing a technology platform using natural language processing and machine learning, such as IBM’s Watson, in the physical world.… read more »
Autism and the Mind/Brain Saturday, November 5, 2016 2:30-4:30 pm Past Event Watch the video » Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects more than 1% of the population. For many years, it was thought to be a rare disorder, resulting from a bad relationship of the children with their so-called refrigerator mothers. However, there is clear evidence now that autism results from abnormalities in brain development, and that the behavior observed in children is the consequence of disturbances in brain circuitry.… read more »