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Project acronym ADDICTIONCIRCUITS
Project Drug addiction: molecular changes in reward and aversion circuits
Researcher (PI) Nils David Engblom
Host Institution (HI) LINKOPINGS UNIVERSITET
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS5, ERC-2010-StG_20091118
Summary Our affective and motivational state is important for our decisions, actions and quality of life. Many pathological conditions affect this state. For example, addictive drugs are hyperactivating the reward system and trigger a strong motivation for continued drug intake, whereas many somatic and psychiatric diseases lead to an aversive state, characterized by loss of motivation. I will study specific neural circuits and mechanisms underlying reward and aversion, and how pathological signaling in these systems can trigger relapse in drug addiction. Given the important role of the dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain for many aspects of reward signaling, I will study how synaptic plasticity in these cells, and in their target neurons in the striatum, contribute to relapse in drug seeking. I will also study the circuits underlying aversion. Little is known about these circuits, but my hypothesis is that an important component of aversion is signaled by a specific neuronal population in the brainstem parabrachial nucleus, projecting to the central amygdala. We will test this hypothesis and also determine how this aversion circuit contributes to the persistence of addiction and to relapse. To dissect this complicated system, I am developing new genetic methods for manipulating and visualizing specific functional circuits in the mouse brain. My unique combination of state-of-the-art competence in transgenics and cutting edge knowledge in the anatomy and functional organization of the circuits behind reward and aversion should allow me to decode these systems, linking discrete circuits to behavior. Collectively, the results will indicate how signals encoding aversion and reward are integrated to control addictive behavior and they may identify novel avenues for treatment of drug addiction as well as aversion-related symptoms affecting patients with chronic inflammatory conditions and cancer.
Our affective and motivational state is important for our decisions, actions and quality of life. Many pathological conditions affect this state. For example, addictive drugs are hyperactivating the reward system and trigger a strong motivation for continued drug intake, whereas many somatic and psychiatric diseases lead to an aversive state, characterized by loss of motivation. I will study specific neural circuits and mechanisms underlying reward and aversion, and how pathological signaling in these systems can trigger relapse in drug addiction. Given the important role of the dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain for many aspects of reward signaling, I will study how synaptic plasticity in these cells, and in their target neurons in the striatum, contribute to relapse in drug seeking. I will also study the circuits underlying aversion. Little is known about these circuits, but my hypothesis is that an important component of aversion is signaled by a specific neuronal population in the brainstem parabrachial nucleus, projecting to the central amygdala. We will test this hypothesis and also determine how this aversion circuit contributes to the persistence of addiction and to relapse. To dissect this complicated system, I am developing new genetic methods for manipulating and visualizing specific functional circuits in the mouse brain. My unique combination of state-of-the-art competence in transgenics and cutting edge knowledge in the anatomy and functional organization of the circuits behind reward and aversion should allow me to decode these systems, linking discrete circuits to behavior. Collectively, the results will indicate how signals encoding aversion and reward are integrated to control addictive behavior and they may identify novel avenues for treatment of drug addiction as well as aversion-related symptoms affecting patients with chronic inflammatory conditions and cancer.
Project acronym AFRODITE
Project Advanced Fluid Research On Drag reduction In Turbulence Experiments
Researcher (PI) Jens Henrik Mikael Fransson
Host Institution (HI) KUNGLIGA TEKNISKA HOEGSKOLAN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE8, ERC-2010-StG_20091028
Summary A hot topic in today's debate on global warming is drag reduction in aeronautics. The most beneficial concept for drag reduction is to maintain the major portion of the airfoil laminar. Estimations show that the potential drag reduction can be as much as 15%, which would give a significant reduction of NOx and CO emissions in the atmosphere considering that the number of aircraft take offs, only in the EU, is over 19 million per year. An important element for successful flow control, which can lead to a reduced aerodynamic drag, is enhanced physical understanding of the transition to turbulence process. In previous wind tunnel measurements we have shown that roughness elements can be used to sensibly delay transition to turbulence. The result is revolutionary, since the common belief has been that surface roughness causes earlier transition and in turn increases the drag, and is a proof of concept of the passive control method per se. The beauty with a passive control technique is that no external energy has to be added to the flow system in order to perform the control, instead one uses the existing energy in the flow. In this project proposal, AFRODITE, we will take this passive control method to the next level by making it twofold, more persistent and more robust. Transition prevention is the goal rather than transition delay and the method will be extended to simultaneously control separation, which is another unwanted flow phenomenon especially during airplane take offs. AFRODITE will be a catalyst for innovative research, which will lead to a cleaner sky.
A hot topic in today's debate on global warming is drag reduction in aeronautics. The most beneficial concept for drag reduction is to maintain the major portion of the airfoil laminar. Estimations show that the potential drag reduction can be as much as 15%, which would give a significant reduction of NOx and CO emissions in the atmosphere considering that the number of aircraft take offs, only in the EU, is over 19 million per year. An important element for successful flow control, which can lead to a reduced aerodynamic drag, is enhanced physical understanding of the transition to turbulence process. In previous wind tunnel measurements we have shown that roughness elements can be used to sensibly delay transition to turbulence. The result is revolutionary, since the common belief has been that surface roughness causes earlier transition and in turn increases the drag, and is a proof of concept of the passive control method per se. The beauty with a passive control technique is that no external energy has to be added to the flow system in order to perform the control, instead one uses the existing energy in the flow. In this project proposal, AFRODITE, we will take this passive control method to the next level by making it twofold, more persistent and more robust. Transition prevention is the goal rather than transition delay and the method will be extended to simultaneously control separation, which is another unwanted flow phenomenon especially during airplane take offs. AFRODITE will be a catalyst for innovative research, which will lead to a cleaner sky.
Project acronym AGINGSEXDIFF
Project Aging Differently: Understanding Sex Differences in Reproductive, Demographic and Functional Senescence
Researcher (PI) Alexei Maklakov
Host Institution (HI) UPPSALA UNIVERSITET
Summary Sex differences in life span and aging are ubiquitous across the animal kingdom and represent a long-standing challenge in evolutionary biology. In most species, including humans, sexes differ not only in how long they live and when they start to senesce, but also in how they react to environmental interventions aimed at prolonging their life span or decelerating the onset of aging. Therefore, sex differences in life span and aging have important implications beyond the questions posed by fundamental science. Both evolutionary reasons and medical implications of sex differences in demographic, reproductive and physiological senescence are and will be crucial targets of present and future research in the biology of aging. Here I propose a two-step approach that can provide a significant breakthrough in our understanding of the biological basis of sex differences in aging. First, I propose to resolve the age-old conundrum regarding the role of sexspecific mortality rate in sex differences in aging by developing a series of targeted experimental evolution studies in a novel model organism – the nematode, Caenorhabditis remanei. Second, I address the role of intra-locus sexual conflict in the evolution of aging by combining novel methodology from nutritional ecology – the Geometric Framework – with artificial selection approach using the cricket Teleogryllus commodus and the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster. I will directly test the hypothesis that intra-locus sexual conflict mediates aging by restricting the adaptive evolution of diet choice. By combining techniques from evolutionary biology and nutritional ecology, this proposal will raise EU's profile in integrative research, and contribute to the training of young scientists in this rapidly developing field.
Sex differences in life span and aging are ubiquitous across the animal kingdom and represent a long-standing challenge in evolutionary biology. In most species, including humans, sexes differ not only in how long they live and when they start to senesce, but also in how they react to environmental interventions aimed at prolonging their life span or decelerating the onset of aging. Therefore, sex differences in life span and aging have important implications beyond the questions posed by fundamental science. Both evolutionary reasons and medical implications of sex differences in demographic, reproductive and physiological senescence are and will be crucial targets of present and future research in the biology of aging. Here I propose a two-step approach that can provide a significant breakthrough in our understanding of the biological basis of sex differences in aging. First, I propose to resolve the age-old conundrum regarding the role of sexspecific mortality rate in sex differences in aging by developing a series of targeted experimental evolution studies in a novel model organism – the nematode, Caenorhabditis remanei. Second, I address the role of intra-locus sexual conflict in the evolution of aging by combining novel methodology from nutritional ecology – the Geometric Framework – with artificial selection approach using the cricket Teleogryllus commodus and the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster. I will directly test the hypothesis that intra-locus sexual conflict mediates aging by restricting the adaptive evolution of diet choice. By combining techniques from evolutionary biology and nutritional ecology, this proposal will raise EU's profile in integrative research, and contribute to the training of young scientists in this rapidly developing field.
Project acronym ANSR
Project Ab initio approach to nuclear structure and reactions (++)
Researcher (PI) Christian Erik Forssen
Host Institution (HI) CHALMERS TEKNISKA HOEGSKOLA AB
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2009-StG
Summary Today, much interest in several fields of physics is devoted to the study of small, open quantum systems, whose properties are profoundly affected by the environment; i.e., the continuum of decay channels. In nuclear physics, these problems were originally studied in the context of nuclear reactions but their importance has been reestablished with the advent of radioactive-beam physics and the resulting interest in exotic nuclei. In particular, strong theory initiatives in this area of research will be instrumental for the success of the experimental program at the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Germany. In addition, many of the aspects of open quantum systems are also being explored in the rapidly evolving research on ultracold atomic gases, quantum dots, and other nanodevices. A first-principles description of open quantum systems presents a substantial theoretical and computational challenge. However, the current availability of enormous computing power has allowed theorists to make spectacular progress on problems that were previously thought intractable. The importance of computational methods to study quantum many-body systems is stressed in this proposal. Our approach is based on the ab initio no-core shell model (NCSM), which is a well-established theoretical framework aimed originally at an exact description of nuclear structure starting from realistic inter-nucleon forces. A successful completion of this project requires extensions of the NCSM mathematical framework and the development of highly advanced computer codes. The '++' in the project title indicates the interdisciplinary aspects of the present research proposal and the ambition to make a significant impact on connected fields of many-body physics.
Today, much interest in several fields of physics is devoted to the study of small, open quantum systems, whose properties are profoundly affected by the environment; i.e., the continuum of decay channels. In nuclear physics, these problems were originally studied in the context of nuclear reactions but their importance has been reestablished with the advent of radioactive-beam physics and the resulting interest in exotic nuclei. In particular, strong theory initiatives in this area of research will be instrumental for the success of the experimental program at the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Germany. In addition, many of the aspects of open quantum systems are also being explored in the rapidly evolving research on ultracold atomic gases, quantum dots, and other nanodevices. A first-principles description of open quantum systems presents a substantial theoretical and computational challenge. However, the current availability of enormous computing power has allowed theorists to make spectacular progress on problems that were previously thought intractable. The importance of computational methods to study quantum many-body systems is stressed in this proposal. Our approach is based on the ab initio no-core shell model (NCSM), which is a well-established theoretical framework aimed originally at an exact description of nuclear structure starting from realistic inter-nucleon forces. A successful completion of this project requires extensions of the NCSM mathematical framework and the development of highly advanced computer codes. The '++' in the project title indicates the interdisciplinary aspects of the present research proposal and the ambition to make a significant impact on connected fields of many-body physics.
Project acronym BIOFINDER
Project New biomarkers for Alzheimer's & Parkinson's diseases - key tools for early diagnosis and drug development
Researcher (PI) Oskar Hansson
Host Institution (HI) MAX IV Laboratory, Lund University
Summary Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) are common in elderly and the prevalence of these is increasing. AD and PD have distinct pathogenesis, which precede the overt clinical symptoms by 10-15 years, opening a window for early diagnosis and treatment. New disease-modifying therapies are likely to be most efficient if initiated before the patients exhibit overt symptoms, making biomarkers for early diagnosis crucial for future clinical trials. Validated biomarkers would speed up initiation of treatment, avoid unnecessary investigations, and reduce patient insecurity. AIMS: (1) identify and validate accurate and cost-effective blood-based biomarkers for early identification of those at high risk to develop AD and PD, (2) develop algorithms using advanced imaging and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers for earlier more accurate diagnoses, and (3) better understand the underlying pathology and early progression of AD and PD, aiming at finding new relevant drug targets. We will assess well-characterized and clinically relevant populations of patients and healthy elderly. We will use population- and clinic-based cohorts and follow them prospectively for 4 year. Participants will undergo neurocognitive evaluation, provide blood and cerebrospinal fluid, and have brain imaging using advanced MRI protocols and a newly developed PET-tracer visualizing brain amyloid. Sample will be analyzed with quantitative mass spectrometry and high sensitivity immunoassays. New biomarkers and brain imaging techniques will aid early diagnosis and facilitate the development of disease-modifying therapies, since treatment can start earlier in the disease process. New methods to quantify relevant drug targets, such as oligomers of β-amyloid and α-synuclein, will be vital when selecting drug candidates for large-scale clinical trials. By improving both diagnosis and therapies the social and economic burden of dementia might be reduced by expanding the period of healthy and active aging
Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) are common in elderly and the prevalence of these is increasing. AD and PD have distinct pathogenesis, which precede the overt clinical symptoms by 10-15 years, opening a window for early diagnosis and treatment. New disease-modifying therapies are likely to be most efficient if initiated before the patients exhibit overt symptoms, making biomarkers for early diagnosis crucial for future clinical trials. Validated biomarkers would speed up initiation of treatment, avoid unnecessary investigations, and reduce patient insecurity. AIMS: (1) identify and validate accurate and cost-effective blood-based biomarkers for early identification of those at high risk to develop AD and PD, (2) develop algorithms using advanced imaging and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers for earlier more accurate diagnoses, and (3) better understand the underlying pathology and early progression of AD and PD, aiming at finding new relevant drug targets. We will assess well-characterized and clinically relevant populations of patients and healthy elderly. We will use population- and clinic-based cohorts and follow them prospectively for 4 year. Participants will undergo neurocognitive evaluation, provide blood and cerebrospinal fluid, and have brain imaging using advanced MRI protocols and a newly developed PET-tracer visualizing brain amyloid. Sample will be analyzed with quantitative mass spectrometry and high sensitivity immunoassays. New biomarkers and brain imaging techniques will aid early diagnosis and facilitate the development of disease-modifying therapies, since treatment can start earlier in the disease process. New methods to quantify relevant drug targets, such as oligomers of β-amyloid and α-synuclein, will be vital when selecting drug candidates for large-scale clinical trials. By improving both diagnosis and therapies the social and economic burden of dementia might be reduced by expanding the period of healthy and active aging
Project acronym BODY-OWNERSHIP
Project Neural mechanisms of body ownership and the projection of ownership onto artificial bodies
Researcher (PI) H. Henrik Ehrsson
Host Institution (HI) KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS4, ERC-2007-StG
Summary How do we recognize that our limbs are part of our own body, and why do we feel that one's self is located inside the body? These fundamental questions have been discussed in theology, philosophy and psychology for millennia. The aim of my ground-breaking research programme is to identify the neuronal mechanisms that produce the sense of ownership of the body, and the processes responsible for the feeling that the self is located inside the physical body. To solve these questions I will adopt an inter-disciplinary approach using state-of-the-art methods from the fields of imaging neuroscience, experimental psychology, computer science and robotics. My first hypothesis is that the mechanism for body ownership is the integration of information from different sensory modalities (vision, touch and muscle sense) in multi-sensory brain areas (ventral premotor and intraparietal cortex). My second hypothesis is that the sense of where you are located in the environment is mediated by allocentric spatial representations in medial temporal lobes. To test this, I will use perceptual illusions and virtual-reality techniques that allow me to manipulate body ownership and the perceived location of the self, in conjunction with non-invasive recordings of brain activity in healthy humans. Functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography will be used to identify the neuronal correlates of ownership and 'in-body experiences', while transcranial magnetic stimulation will be used to examine the causal relationship between neural activity and ownership. It is no overstatement to say that my pioneering work could define a new sub-field in cognitive neuroscience dealing with how the brain represents the self. These basic scientific discoveries will be used in new frontier applications. For example, the development of a prosthetic limb that feels just like a real limb, and a method of controlling humanoid robots by the illusion of 'becoming the robot'.
How do we recognize that our limbs are part of our own body, and why do we feel that one's self is located inside the body? These fundamental questions have been discussed in theology, philosophy and psychology for millennia. The aim of my ground-breaking research programme is to identify the neuronal mechanisms that produce the sense of ownership of the body, and the processes responsible for the feeling that the self is located inside the physical body. To solve these questions I will adopt an inter-disciplinary approach using state-of-the-art methods from the fields of imaging neuroscience, experimental psychology, computer science and robotics. My first hypothesis is that the mechanism for body ownership is the integration of information from different sensory modalities (vision, touch and muscle sense) in multi-sensory brain areas (ventral premotor and intraparietal cortex). My second hypothesis is that the sense of where you are located in the environment is mediated by allocentric spatial representations in medial temporal lobes. To test this, I will use perceptual illusions and virtual-reality techniques that allow me to manipulate body ownership and the perceived location of the self, in conjunction with non-invasive recordings of brain activity in healthy humans. Functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography will be used to identify the neuronal correlates of ownership and 'in-body experiences', while transcranial magnetic stimulation will be used to examine the causal relationship between neural activity and ownership. It is no overstatement to say that my pioneering work could define a new sub-field in cognitive neuroscience dealing with how the brain represents the self. These basic scientific discoveries will be used in new frontier applications. For example, the development of a prosthetic limb that feels just like a real limb, and a method of controlling humanoid robots by the illusion of 'becoming the robot'.
Project acronym Born-Immune
Project Shaping of the Human Immune System by Primal Environmental Exposures In the Newborn Child
Researcher (PI) Klas Erik Petter Brodin
Summary Immune systems are highly variable, but the sources of this variation are poorly understood. Genetic variation only explains a minor fraction of this, and we are unable to accurately predict the risk of immune mediated disease or severe infection in any given individual. I recently found that immune cells and proteins in healthy twins vary because of non-heritable influences (infections, vaccines, microbiota etc.), with only minor influences from heritable factors (Brodin, et al, Cell 2015). When and how such environmental influences shape our immune system is now important to understand. Birth represents the most transformational change in environment during the life of any individual. I propose, that environmental influences at birth, and during the first months of life could be particularly influential by imprinting on the regulatory mechanisms forming in the developing immune system. Adaptive changes in immune cell frequencies and functional states induced by early-life exposures could determine both the immune competence of the newborn, but potentially also its long-term trajectory towards immunological health or disease. Here, I propose a study of 1000 newborn children, followed longitudinally during their first 1000 days of life. By monitoring immune profiles and recording many environmental influences, we hope to understand how early life exposures can influence human immune system development. We have established a new assay based on Mass Cytometry and necessary data analysis tools (Brodin, et al, PNAS 2014), to simultaneously monitor the frequencies, phenotypes and functional states of more than 200 blood immune cell populations from only 100 microliters of blood. By monitoring environmental influences at regular follow-up visits, by questionnaires, serum measurements of infection, and gut microbiome sequencing, we aim to provide the most comprehensive analysis to date of immune system development in newborn children.
Immune systems are highly variable, but the sources of this variation are poorly understood. Genetic variation only explains a minor fraction of this, and we are unable to accurately predict the risk of immune mediated disease or severe infection in any given individual. I recently found that immune cells and proteins in healthy twins vary because of non-heritable influences (infections, vaccines, microbiota etc.), with only minor influences from heritable factors (Brodin, et al, Cell 2015). When and how such environmental influences shape our immune system is now important to understand. Birth represents the most transformational change in environment during the life of any individual. I propose, that environmental influences at birth, and during the first months of life could be particularly influential by imprinting on the regulatory mechanisms forming in the developing immune system. Adaptive changes in immune cell frequencies and functional states induced by early-life exposures could determine both the immune competence of the newborn, but potentially also its long-term trajectory towards immunological health or disease. Here, I propose a study of 1000 newborn children, followed longitudinally during their first 1000 days of life. By monitoring immune profiles and recording many environmental influences, we hope to understand how early life exposures can influence human immune system development. We have established a new assay based on Mass Cytometry and necessary data analysis tools (Brodin, et al, PNAS 2014), to simultaneously monitor the frequencies, phenotypes and functional states of more than 200 blood immune cell populations from only 100 microliters of blood. By monitoring environmental influences at regular follow-up visits, by questionnaires, serum measurements of infection, and gut microbiome sequencing, we aim to provide the most comprehensive analysis to date of immune system development in newborn children.
Project acronym BRAINCELL
Project Charting the landscape of brain development by large-scale single-cell transcriptomics and phylogenetic lineage reconstruction
Researcher (PI) Sten Linnarsson
Summary Embryogenesis is the temporal unfolding of cellular processes: proliferation, migration, differentiation, morphogenesis, apoptosis and functional specialization. These processes are well understood in specific tissues, and for specific cell types. Nevertheless, our systematic knowledge of the types of cells present in the developing and adult animal, and about their functional and lineage relationships, is limited. For example, there is no consensus on the number of cell types, and many important stem cells and progenitors remain to be discovered. Similarly, the lineage relationships between specific cell types are often poorly characterized. This is particularly true for the mammalian nervous system. We have developed (1) a reliable high-throghput method for sequencing all transcripts in 96 single cells at a time; and (2) a system for high-throughput phylogenetic lineage reconstruction. We now propose to characterize embryogenesis using a shotgun approach borrowed from genomics. Tissues will be dissected from multiple stages and dissociated to single cells. A total of 10,000 cells will be analyzed by RNA sequencing, revealing their functional cell type, their lineage relationships, and their current state (e.g. cell cycle phase). The novel approach proposed here will bring the powerful strategies pioneered in genomics into the field of developmental biology, including automation, digitization, and the random shotgun method. The data thus obtained will bring clarity to the concept of 'cell type'; will provide a first catalog of mouse brain cell types with deep functional annotation; will provide markers for every cell type, including stem cells; and will serve as a basis for future comparative work, especially with human embryos.
Embryogenesis is the temporal unfolding of cellular processes: proliferation, migration, differentiation, morphogenesis, apoptosis and functional specialization. These processes are well understood in specific tissues, and for specific cell types. Nevertheless, our systematic knowledge of the types of cells present in the developing and adult animal, and about their functional and lineage relationships, is limited. For example, there is no consensus on the number of cell types, and many important stem cells and progenitors remain to be discovered. Similarly, the lineage relationships between specific cell types are often poorly characterized. This is particularly true for the mammalian nervous system. We have developed (1) a reliable high-throghput method for sequencing all transcripts in 96 single cells at a time; and (2) a system for high-throughput phylogenetic lineage reconstruction. We now propose to characterize embryogenesis using a shotgun approach borrowed from genomics. Tissues will be dissected from multiple stages and dissociated to single cells. A total of 10,000 cells will be analyzed by RNA sequencing, revealing their functional cell type, their lineage relationships, and their current state (e.g. cell cycle phase). The novel approach proposed here will bring the powerful strategies pioneered in genomics into the field of developmental biology, including automation, digitization, and the random shotgun method. The data thus obtained will bring clarity to the concept of 'cell type'; will provide a first catalog of mouse brain cell types with deep functional annotation; will provide markers for every cell type, including stem cells; and will serve as a basis for future comparative work, especially with human embryos.
Project acronym BrainInBrain
Project Neural circuits underlying complex brain function across animals - from conserved core concepts to specializations defining a species' identity
Researcher (PI) Stanley HEINZE
Host Institution (HI) LUNDS UNIVERSITET
Summary The core function of all brains is to compute the current state of the world, compare it to the desired state of the world and select motor programs that drive behavior minimizing any mismatch. The circuits underlying these functions are the key to understand brains in general, but so far they are completely unknown. Three problems have hindered progress: 1) The animal's desired state of the world is rarely known. 2) Most studies in simple models have focused on sensory driven, reflex-like processes, and not considered self-initiated behavior. 3) The circuits underlying complex behaviors in vertebrates are widely distributed, containing millions of neurons. With this proposal I aim at overcoming these problems using insects, whose tiny brains solve the same basic problems as our brains but with 100,000 times fewer cells. Moreover, the central complex, a single conserved brain region consisting of only a few thousand neurons, is crucial for sensory integration, motor control and state-dependent modulation, essentially being a 'brain in the brain'. To simplify the problem further I will focus on navigation behavior. Here, the desired and actual states of the world are equal to the desired and current headings of the animal, with mismatches resulting in compensatory steering. I have previously shown how the central complex encodes the animal's current heading. Now I will use behavioral training to generate animals with highly defined desired headings, and correlate neural activity with the animal's 'intentions' and actions - at the level of identified neurons. To establish the involved conserved core circuitry valid across insects I will compare species with distinct lifestyles. Secondly, I will reveal how these circuits have evolved to account for each species' unique ecology. The proposed work will provide a coherent framework to study key concepts of fundamental brain functions in unprecedented detail - using a single, conserved, but flexible neural circuit.
The core function of all brains is to compute the current state of the world, compare it to the desired state of the world and select motor programs that drive behavior minimizing any mismatch. The circuits underlying these functions are the key to understand brains in general, but so far they are completely unknown. Three problems have hindered progress: 1) The animal's desired state of the world is rarely known. 2) Most studies in simple models have focused on sensory driven, reflex-like processes, and not considered self-initiated behavior. 3) The circuits underlying complex behaviors in vertebrates are widely distributed, containing millions of neurons. With this proposal I aim at overcoming these problems using insects, whose tiny brains solve the same basic problems as our brains but with 100,000 times fewer cells. Moreover, the central complex, a single conserved brain region consisting of only a few thousand neurons, is crucial for sensory integration, motor control and state-dependent modulation, essentially being a 'brain in the brain'. To simplify the problem further I will focus on navigation behavior. Here, the desired and actual states of the world are equal to the desired and current headings of the animal, with mismatches resulting in compensatory steering. I have previously shown how the central complex encodes the animal's current heading. Now I will use behavioral training to generate animals with highly defined desired headings, and correlate neural activity with the animal's 'intentions' and actions - at the level of identified neurons. To establish the involved conserved core circuitry valid across insects I will compare species with distinct lifestyles. Secondly, I will reveal how these circuits have evolved to account for each species' unique ecology. The proposed work will provide a coherent framework to study key concepts of fundamental brain functions in unprecedented detail - using a single, conserved, but flexible neural circuit.
Project acronym BUCOPHSYS
Project Bottom-up hybrid control and planning synthesis with application to multi-robot multi-human coordination
Researcher (PI) DIMOS Dimarogonas
Summary Current control applications necessitate the treatment of systems with multiple interconnected components, rather than the traditional single component paradigm that has been studied extensively. The individual subsystems may need to fulfil different and possibly conflicting specifications in a real-time manner. At the same time, they may need to fulfill coupled constraints that are defined as relations between their states. Towards this end, the need for methods for decentralized control at the continuous level and planning at the task level becomes apparent. We aim here towards unification of these two complementary approaches. Existing solutions rely on a top down centralized approach. We instead consider here a decentralized, bottom-up solution to the problem. The approach relies on three layers of interaction. In the first layer, agents aim at coordinating in order to fulfil their coupled constraints with limited communication exchange of their state information and design of appropriate feedback controllers; in the second layer, agents coordinate in order to mutually satisfy their discrete tasks through exchange of the corresponding plans in the form of automata; in the third and most challenging layer, the communication exchange for coordination now includes both continuous state and discrete plan/abstraction information. The results will be demonstrated in a scenario involving multiple (possibly human) users and multiple robots. The unification will yield a completely decentralized system, in which the bottom up approach to define tasks, the consideration of coupled constraints and their combination towards distributed hybrid control and planning in a coordinated fashion require for new ways of thinking and approaches to analysis and constitute the proposal a beyond the SoA and groundbreaking approach to the fields of control and computer science.
Current control applications necessitate the treatment of systems with multiple interconnected components, rather than the traditional single component paradigm that has been studied extensively. The individual subsystems may need to fulfil different and possibly conflicting specifications in a real-time manner. At the same time, they may need to fulfill coupled constraints that are defined as relations between their states. Towards this end, the need for methods for decentralized control at the continuous level and planning at the task level becomes apparent. We aim here towards unification of these two complementary approaches. Existing solutions rely on a top down centralized approach. We instead consider here a decentralized, bottom-up solution to the problem. The approach relies on three layers of interaction. In the first layer, agents aim at coordinating in order to fulfil their coupled constraints with limited communication exchange of their state information and design of appropriate feedback controllers; in the second layer, agents coordinate in order to mutually satisfy their discrete tasks through exchange of the corresponding plans in the form of automata; in the third and most challenging layer, the communication exchange for coordination now includes both continuous state and discrete plan/abstraction information. The results will be demonstrated in a scenario involving multiple (possibly human) users and multiple robots. The unification will yield a completely decentralized system, in which the bottom up approach to define tasks, the consideration of coupled constraints and their combination towards distributed hybrid control and planning in a coordinated fashion require for new ways of thinking and approaches to analysis and constitute the proposal a beyond the SoA and groundbreaking approach to the fields of control and computer science.


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Home » Marx predicted our present crisis – and points the way out (The Guardian) by Yanis Varoufakis, 20 April 2018
Marx predicted our present crisis – and points the way out (The Guardian) by Yanis Varoufakis, 20 April 2018
or a manifesto to succeed, it must speak to our hearts like a poem while infecting the mind with images and ideas that are dazzlingly new. It needs to open our eyes to the true causes of the bewildering, disturbing, exciting changes occurring around us, exposing the possibilities with which our current reality is pregnant. It should make us feel hopelessly inadequate for not having recognised these truths ourselves, and it must lift the curtain on the unsettling realisation that we have been acting as petty accomplices, reproducing a dead-end past. Lastly, it needs to have the power of a Beethoven symphony, urging us to become agents of a future that ends unnecessary mass suffering and to inspire humanity to realise its potential for authentic freedom.
Yanis Varoufakis: Marx predicted our present crisis, and points the way out – podcast
No manifesto has better succeeded in doing all this than the one published in February 1848 at 46 Liverpool Street, London. Commissioned by English revolutionaries, The Communist Manifesto (or the Manifesto of the Communist Party, as it was first published) was authored by two young Germans – Karl Marx, a 29-year-old philosopher with a taste for epicurean hedonism and Hegelian rationality, and Friedrich Engels, a 28-year-old heir to a Manchester mill.
As a work of political literature, the manifesto remains unsurpassed. Its most infamous lines, including the opening one ("A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism"), have a Shakespearean quality. Like Hamlet confronted by the ghost of his slain father, the reader is compelled to wonder: "Should I conform to the prevailing order, suffering the slings and arrows of the outrageous fortune bestowed upon me by history's irresistible forces? Or should I join these forces, taking up arms against the status quo and, by opposing it, usher in a brave new world?"
For Marx and Engels' immediate readership, this was not an academic dilemma, debated in the salons of Europe. Their manifesto was a call to action, and heeding this spectre's invocation often meant persecution, or, in some cases, lengthy imprisonment. Today, a similar dilemma faces young people: conform to an established order that is crumbling and incapable of reproducing itself, or oppose it, at considerable personal cost, in search of new ways of working, playing and living together? Even though communist parties have disappeared almost entirely from the political scene, the spirit of communism driving the manifesto is proving hard to silence.
To see beyond the horizon is any manifesto's ambition. But to succeed as Marx and Engels did in accurately describing an era that would arrive a century-and-a-half in the future, as well as to analyse the contradictions and choices we face today, is truly astounding. In the late 1840s, capitalism was foundering, local, fragmented and timid. And yet Marx and Engels took one long look at it and foresaw our globalised, financialised, iron-clad, all-singing-all-dancing capitalism. This was the creature that came into being after 1991, at the very same moment the establishment was proclaiming the death of Marxism and the end of history.
Of course, the predictive failure of The Communist Manifesto has long been exaggerated. I remember how even leftwing economists in the early 1970s challenged the pivotal manifesto prediction that capital would "nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions everywhere". Drawing upon the sad reality of what were then called third world countries, they argued that capital had lost its fizz well before expanding beyond its "metropolis" in Europe, America and Japan.
Empirically they were correct: European, US and Japanese multinational corporations operating in the "peripheries" of Africa, Asia and Latin America were confining themselves to the role of colonial resource extractors and failing to spread capitalism there. Instead of imbuing these countries with capitalist development (drawing "all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation"), they argued that foreign capital was reproducing the development of underdevelopment in the third world. It was as if the manifesto had placed too much faith in capital's ability to spread into every nook and cranny. Most economists, including those sympathetic to Marx, doubted the manifesto's prediction that "exploitation of the world-market" would give "a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country".
As it turned out, the manifesto was right, albeit belatedly. It would take the collapse of the Soviet Union and the insertion of two billion Chinese and Indian workers into the capitalist labour market for its prediction to be vindicated. Indeed, for capital to globalise fully, the regimes that pledged allegiance to the manifesto had first to be torn asunder. Has history ever procured a more delicious irony?
Anyone reading the manifesto today will be surprised to discover a picture of a world much like our own, teetering fearfully on the edge of technological innovation. In the manifesto's time, it was the steam engine that posed the greatest challenge to the rhythms and routines of feudal life. The peasantry were swept into the cogs and wheels of this machinery and a new class of masters, the factory owners and the merchants, usurped the landed gentry's control over society. Now, it is artificial intelligence and automation that loom as disruptive threats, promising to sweep away "all fixed, fast-frozen relations". "Constantly revolutionising … instruments of production," the manifesto proclaims, transform "the whole relations of society", bringing about "constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation".
For Marx and Engels, however, this disruption is to be celebrated. It acts as a catalyst for the final push humanity needs to do away with our remaining prejudices that underpin the great divide between those who own the machines and those who design, operate and work with them. "All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned," they write in the manifesto of technology's effect, "and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind". By ruthlessly vaporising our preconceptions and false certainties, technological change is forcing us, kicking and screaming, to face up to how pathetic our relations with one another are.
Today, we see this reckoning in millions of words, in print and online, used to debate globalisation's discontents. While celebrating how globalisation has shifted billions from abject poverty to relative poverty, venerable western newspapers, Hollywood personalities, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, bishops and even multibillionaire financiers all lament some of its less desirable ramifications: unbearable inequality, brazen greed, climate change, and the hijacking of our parliamentary democracies by bankers and the ultra-rich.
None of this should surprise a reader of the manifesto. "Society as a whole," it argues, "is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other." As production is mechanised, and the profit margin of the machine-owners becomes our civilisation's driving motive, society splits between non-working shareholders and non-owner wage-workers. As for the middle class, it is the dinosaur in the room, set for extinction.
At the same time, the ultra-rich become guilt-ridden and stressed as they watch everyone else's lives sink into the precariousness of insecure wage-slavery. Marx and Engels foresaw that this supremely powerful minority would eventually prove "unfit to rule" over such polarised societies, because they would not be in a position to guarantee the wage-slaves a reliable existence. Barricaded in their gated communities, they find themselves consumed by anxiety and incapable of enjoying their riches. Some of them, those smart enough to realise their true long-term self-interest, recognise the welfare state as the best available insurance policy. But alas, explains the manifesto, as a social class, it will be in their nature to skimp on the insurance premium, and they will work tirelessly to avoid paying the requisite taxes.
Is this not what has transpired? The ultra-rich are an insecure, permanently disgruntled clique, constantly in and out of detox clinics, relentlessly seeking solace from psychics, shrinks and entrepreneurial gurus. Meanwhile, everyone else struggles to put food on the table, pay tuition fees, juggle one credit card for another or fight depression. We act as if our lives are carefree, claiming to like what we do and do what we like. Yet in reality, we cry ourselves to sleep.
Do-gooders, establishment politicians and recovering academic economists all respond to this predicament in the same way, issuing fiery condemnations of the symptoms (income inequality) while ignoring the causes (exploitation resulting from the unequal property rights over machines, land, resources). Is it any wonder we are at an impasse, wallowing in hopelessness that only serves the populists seeking to court the worst instincts of the masses?
With the rapid rise of advanced technology, we are brought closer to the moment when we must decide how to relate to each other in a rational, civilised manner. We can no longer hide behind the inevitability of work and the oppressive social norms it necessitates. The manifesto gives its 21st-century reader an opportunity to see through this mess and to recognise what needs to be done so that the majority can escape from discontent into new social arrangements in which "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all". Even though it contains no roadmap of how to get there, the manifesto remains a source of hope not to be dismissed.
If the manifesto holds the same power to excite, enthuse and shame us that it did in 1848, it is because the struggle between social classes is as old as time itself. Marx and Engels summed this up in 13 audacious words: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles."
From feudal aristocracies to industrialised empires, the engine of history has always been the conflict between constantly revolutionising technologies and prevailing class conventions. With each disruption of society's technology, the conflict between us changes form. Old classes die out and eventually only two remain standing: the class that owns everything and the class that owns nothing – the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
This is the predicament in which we find ourselves today. While we owe capitalism for having reduced all class distinctions to the gulf between owners and non-owners, Marx and Engels want us to realise that capitalism is insufficiently evolved to survive the technologies it spawns. It is our duty to tear away at the old notion of privately owned means of production and force a metamorphosis, which must involve the social ownership of machinery, land and resources. Now, when new technologies are unleashed in societies bound by the primitive labour contract, wholesale misery follows. In the manifesto's unforgettable words: "A society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells."
The sorcerer will always imagine that their apps, search engines, robots and genetically engineered seeds will bring wealth and happiness to all. But, once released into societies divided between wage labourers and owners, these technological marvels will push wages and prices to levels that create low profits for most businesses. It is only big tech, big pharma and the few corporations that command exceptionally large political and economic power over us that truly benefit. If we continue to subscribe to labour contracts between employer and employee, then private property rights will govern and drive capital to inhuman ends. Only by abolishing private ownership of the instruments of mass production and replacing it with a new type of common ownership that works in sync with new technologies, will we lessen inequality and find collective happiness.
According to Marx and Engels' 13-word theory of history, the current stand-off between worker and owner has always been guaranteed. "Equally inevitable," the manifesto states, is the bourgeoisie's "fall and the victory of the proletariat". So far, history has not fulfilled this prediction, but critics forget that the manifesto, like any worthy piece of propaganda, presents hope in the form of certainty. Just as Lord Nelson rallied his troops before the Battle of Trafalgar by announcing that England "expected" them to do their duty (even if he had grave doubts that they would), the manifesto bestows upon the proletariat the expectation that they will do their duty to themselves, inspiring them to unite and liberate one another from the bonds of wage-slavery.
Will they? On current form, it seems unlikely. But, then again, we had to wait for globalisation to appear in the 1990s before the manifesto's estimation of capital's potential could be fully vindicated. Might it not be that the new global, increasingly precarious proletariat needs more time before it can play the historic role the manifesto anticipated? While the jury is still out, Marx and Engels tell us that, if we fear the rhetoric of revolution, or try to distract ourselves from our duty to one another, we will find ourselves caught in a vertiginous spiral in which capital saturates and bleaches the human spirit. The only thing we can be certain of, according to the manifesto, is that unless capital is socialised we are in for dystopic developments.
On the topic of dystopia, the sceptical reader will perk up: what of the manifesto's own complicity in legitimising authoritarian regimes and steeling the spirit of gulag guards? Instead of responding defensively, pointing out that no one blames Adam Smith for the excesses of Wall Street, or the New Testament for the Spanish Inquisition, we can speculate how the authors of the manifesto might have answered this charge. I believe that, with the benefit of hindsight, Marx and Engels would confess to an important error in their analysis: insufficient reflexivity. This is to say that they failed to give sufficient thought, and kept a judicious silence, over the impact their own analysis would have on the world they were analysing.
The manifesto told a powerful story in uncompromising language, intended to stir readers from their apathy. What Marx and Engels failed to foresee was that powerful, prescriptive texts have a tendency to procure disciples, believers – a priesthood, even – and that this faithful might use the power bestowed upon them by the manifesto to their own advantage. With it, they might abuse other comrades, build their own power base, gain positions of influence, bed impressionable students, take control of the politburo and imprison anyone who resists them.
Similarly, Marx and Engels failed to estimate the impact of their writing on capitalism itself. To the extent that the manifesto helped fashion the Soviet Union, its eastern European satellites, Castro's Cuba, Tito's Yugoslavia and several social democratic governments in the west, would these developments not cause a chain reaction that would frustrate the manifesto's predictions and analysis? After the Russian revolution and then the second world war, the fear of communism forced capitalist regimes to embrace pension schemes, national health services, even the idea of making the rich pay for poor and petit bourgeois students to attend purpose-built liberal universities. Meanwhile, rabid hostility to the Soviet Union stirred up paranoia and created a climate of fear that proved particularly fertile for figures such as Joseph Stalin and Pol Pot.
I believe that Marx and Engels would have regretted not anticipating the manifesto's impact on the communist parties it foreshadowed. They would be kicking themselves that they overlooked the kind of dialectic they loved to analyse: how workers' states would become increasingly totalitarian in their response to capitalist state aggression, and how, in their response to the fear of communism, these capitalist states would grow increasingly civilised.
Blessed, of course, are the authors whose errors result from the power of their words. Even more blessed are those whose errors are self-correcting. In our present day, the workers' states inspired by the manifesto are almost gone, and the communist parties disbanded or in disarray. Liberated from competition with regimes inspired by the manifesto, globalised capitalism is behaving as if it is determined to create a world best explained by the manifesto.
What makes the manifesto truly inspiring today is its recommendation for us in the here and now, in a world where our lives are being constantly shaped by what Marx described in his earlier Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts as "a universal energy which breaks every limit and every bond and posits itself as the only policy, the only universality, the only limit and the only bond". From Uber drivers and finance ministers to banking executives and the wretchedly poor, we can all be excused for feeling overwhelmed by this "energy". Capitalism's reach is so pervasive it can sometimes seem impossible to imagine a world without it. It is only a small step from feelings of impotence to falling victim to the assertion there is no alternative. But, astonishingly (claims the manifesto), it is precisely when we are about to succumb to this idea that alternatives abound.
What we don't need at this juncture are sermons on the injustice of it all, denunciations of rising inequality or vigils for our vanishing democratic sovereignty. Nor should we stomach desperate acts of regressive escapism: the cry to return to some pre-modern, pre-technological state where we can cling to the bosom of nationalism. What the manifesto promotes in moments of doubt and submission is a clear-headed, objective assessment of capitalism and its ills, seen through the cold, hard light of rationality.
The manifesto argues that the problem with capitalism is not that it produces too much technology, or that it is unfair. Capitalism's problem is that it is irrational. Capital's success at spreading its reach via accumulation for accumulation's sake is causing human workers to work like machines for a pittance, while the robots are programmed to produce stuff that the workers can no longer afford and the robots do not need. Capital fails to make rational use of the brilliant machines it engenders, condemning whole generations to deprivation, a decrepit environment, underemployment and zero real leisure from the pursuit of employment and general survival. Even capitalists are turned into angst-ridden automatons. They live in permanent fear that unless they commodify their fellow humans, they will cease to be capitalists – joining the desolate ranks of the expanding precariat-proletariat.
If capitalism appears unjust it is because it enslaves everyone, rich and poor, wasting human and natural resources. The same "production line" that pumps out untold wealth also produces deep unhappiness and discontent on an industrial scale. So, our first task – according to the manifesto – is to recognise the tendency of this all-conquering "energy" to undermine itself.
When asked by journalists who or what is the greatest threat to capitalism today, I defy their expectations by answering: capital! Of course, this is an idea I have been plagiarising for decades from the manifesto. Given that it is neither possible nor desirable to annul capitalism's "energy", the trick is to help speed up capital's development (so that it burns up like a meteor rushing through the atmosphere) while, on the other hand, resisting (through rational, collective action) its tendency to steamroller our human spirit. In short, the manifesto's recommendation is that we push capital to its limits while limiting its consequences and preparing for its socialisation.
We need more robots, better solar panels, instant communication and sophisticated green transport networks. But equally, we need to organise politically to defend the weak, empower the many and prepare the ground for reversing the absurdities of capitalism. In practical terms, this means treating the idea that there is no alternative with the contempt it deserves while rejecting all calls for a "return" to a less modernised existence. There was nothing ethical about life under earlier forms of capitalism. TV shows that massively invest in calculated nostalgia, such as Downton Abbey, should make us glad to live when we do. At the same time, they might also encourage us to floor the accelerator of change.
The manifesto is one of those emotive texts that speak to each of us differently at different times, reflecting our own circumstances. Some years ago, I called myself an erratic, libertarian Marxist and I was roundly disparaged by non-Marxists and Marxists alike. Soon after, I found myself thrust into a political position of some prominence, during a period of intense conflict between the then Greek government and some of capitalism's most powerful agents. Rereading the manifesto for the purposes of writing this introduction has been a little like inviting the ghosts of Marx and Engels to yell a mixture of censure and support in my ear.
Adults in the Room, my memoir of the time I served as Greece's finance minister in 2015, tells the story of how the Greek spring was crushed via a combination of brute force (on the part of Greece's creditors) and a divided front within my own government. It is as honest and accurate as I could make it. Seen from the perspective of the manifesto, however, the true historical agents were confined to cameo appearances or to the role of quasi-passive victims. "Where is the proletariat in your story?" I can almost hear Marx and Engels screaming at me now. "Should they not be the ones confronting capitalism's most powerful, with you supporting from the sidelines?"
Thankfully, rereading the manifesto has offered some solace too, endorsing my view of it as a liberal text – a libertarian one, even. Where the manifesto lambasts bourgeois-liberal virtues, it does so because of its dedication and even love for them. Liberty, happiness, autonomy, individuality, spirituality, and self-guided development are ideals that Marx and Engels valued above everything else. If they are angry with the bourgeoisie, it is because the bourgeoisie seeks to deny the majority any opportunity to be free. Given Marx and Engels' adherence to Hegel's fantastic idea that no one is free as long as one person is in chains, their quarrel with the bourgeoisie is that they sacrifice everybody's freedom and individuality on capitalism's altar of accumulation.
Although Marx and Engels were not anarchists, they loathed the state and its potential to be manipulated by one class to suppress another. At best, they saw it as a necessary evil that would live on in the good, post-capitalist future coordinating a classless society. If this reading of the manifesto holds water, the only way of being a communist is to be a libertarian one. Heeding the manifesto's call to "Unite!" is in fact inconsistent with becoming card-carrying Stalinists or with seeking to remake the world in the image of now-defunct communist regimes.
When everything is said and done, then, what is the bottom line of the manifesto? And why should anyone, especially young people today, care about history, politics and the like?
Marx and Engels based their manifesto on a touchingly simple answer: authentic human happiness and the genuine freedom that must accompany it. For them, these are the only things that truly matter. Their manifesto does not rely on strict Germanic invocations of duty, or appeals to historic responsibilities to inspire us to act. It does not moralise, or point its finger. Marx and Engels attempted to overcome the fixations of German moral philosophy and capitalist profit motives, with a rational, yet rousing appeal to the very basics of our shared human nature.
Key to their analysis is the ever-expanding chasm between those who produce and those who own the instruments of production. The problematic nexus of capital and waged labour stops us from enjoying our work and our artefacts, and turns employers and workers, rich and poor, into mindless, quivering pawns who are being quick-marched towards a pointless existence by forces beyond our control.
But why do we need politics to deal with this? Isn't politics stultifying, especially socialist politics, which Oscar Wilde once claimed "takes up too many evenings"? Marx and Engels' answer is: because we cannot end this idiocy individually; because no market can ever emerge that will produce an antidote to this stupidity. Collective, democratic political action is our only chance for freedom and enjoyment. And for this, the long nights seem a small price to pay.
Humanity may succeed in securing social arrangements that allow for "the free development of each" as the "condition for the free development of all". But, then again, we may end up in the "common ruin" of nuclear war, environmental disaster or agonising discontent. In our present moment, there are no guarantees. We can turn to the manifesto for inspiration, wisdom and energy but, in the end, what prevails is up to us.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


How to electroform an organic object (iris seed pod). Commonly referred to as "dipping" in metal, think bronze baby shoes!
First, you need to find an object you wish to electroform. The possibilities are almost endless, from shells, fabric, wax, clay, plastic, paper, seeds and pods, etc. Be creative! For this project, I have selected an iris seed pod from my garden. I have removed the stem and leaves.
Attach a copper jump-ring to your piece. This will serve 2 purposes - to attach to copper wire to suspend in the electroform solution, and to attach to your finished jewelry piece. Use hot glue or a 2-part epoxy.
For porous objects, such as seed pods, they need to be lacquered to seal them. Paint or dip the object in the lacquer, making sure it is completely covered. Hang to dry in a cool, dry place, avoiding dirt and dust.
Let them dry overnight in a cool, dry, and dust-free environment.
Make sure to avoid touching the lacquered surface of your object. Use gloved hands or tweezers to hold the seed pod, and paint on a thin layer of conductive paint.
I use a 22ga sheet of copper with the top bent over so it will hang over the side of the beaker. With gloved hands, scrub it vigorously with a scotch-brite pad to remove any dirt or oils from the surface.
Step 9: Prepare the Electroforming Solution.
Fill the beaker with the electroforming solution, and put the anode in place. With the rectifier turned off, attach the red (positive) lead to the anode with the alligator clip.
Step 10: Preparing the Seed Pod.
Make sure to wear your gloves, as you want to avoid getting any oil or dirt on the painted object. Attach a length of copper wire to the jump ring, secure it by twisting the wire back on itself.
Step 11: Preparing to Electroform.
Attach the wire to a long length of copper tubing. The tube will rest on the edges of the beaker, allowing the seed pod to be suspended into the electroforming solution. Attach the black (negative) lead to the copper tubing with the alligator clip.
Turn the rectifier on, keeping the amp and volt set both below 1. Slowly submerge the seed pod into the solution, making sure it is completely covered. After a few seconds, you should be able to see a light layer of copper forming on the surface!
Let the copper tubing rest on the beaker. Make sure there is plenty of space between the anode and the seed pod, they should never touch. You also want to avoid allowing the seed pod to rest against the glass. Check the amp and voltage setting, they should both be at or below 1. You want a very slow and steady build-up of copper to form, otherwise it can flake off.
The electroforming process can take several hours (4-8) - a slow and even layer is the most durable. It is a good idea to check on your piece every 30-45 minutes, checking the amp and voltage setting, as well as your piece to make sure an even layer is forming.
After 4 - 6 hours, remove the seed pod from the electroforming solution. Rinse in a neutralizing bath of baking soda and water, making sure all acid has been rinsed away.
Pay attention to any points or protrusions on your piece, as they can be prone to a fast build-up, seen here on the tips of the iris pod. If little granules of copper begin forming on your object, turn down the amp/voltage, and make sure the seed pod is at least 2 inches away from the anode.
I often get granules forming on my leadwire before my actual object, but since this is discarded, doesn't pose any problems.
A solid, even layer of copper has been formed on the surface of the seed pod. It has a bright new-penny copper finish, and is easily tarnished. Once you have your desired finish (I prefer a darker patina using liver of sulfur) lacquer the piece to seal the finish. It is now ready to be turned in to jewelry!
After removing from the leadwire, I dip my objects into liver of sulfur patina, which gives a dark black finish. I then scrub with steel wool which highlights the raised areas, leaving the recesses dark black. I then use a spray-lacquer to seal the finish, and string onto cotton cording for a fun and organic necklace.
I know this is waaaay late. But for anyone else interested, what they can look for is "regulated dc power supply for cellphone repair". It comes out a lot cheaper than actually looking for an "electroforming rectifier". I got mine off my local ebay, and it cost me about USD 25. There are some even cheaper.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge about electroforming, I have been researching all day and your insight has been the most informing :) I believe I have gathered most of the information I need to get started but I am unsure of what copper conductor paint to use. What have you found works best and where can I find it? Looking forward to hearing from you, have a beautiful evening!!
What is the easiest way to seal a leaf? I was painting laquer on and then letting it dry on wax paper but that doesn't really work well. Would you glue a copper jump ring on a leaf as well?
Someone elsewhere suggested applying white glue first. Anything that would coat the leaf and make it stiffer would hold up better than uncoated. Then spray paint as usual.
I have been electroforming for 5 years. You must filter the copper solution from time to time to remove oxides. Aquarium charcoal thru a coffee filter into a clean beaker. I take the natural shape of opals and grow settings around them and then gold plate them.
That sounds fascinating. I'm just curious, since opals are porous, are they treated somehow first? I bet they're gorgeous.
Hey sandyq4, I hope you get this :) and I think you might be able to answer my question. On the part where you paint lacquer on, do you need to do it for everything. Do you do it for all your stones. I'm playing around with some druzy but not sure how natural stone they are or synthetic and also pearls and seashells, do you know if I should lacquer first?
sorry my badenglish,i just want to say, your site is very good,i tried elektroform cones and insects. i used copper anode, varnish from sherri haab,silver conductive paintfrom goldn.uk and bright acidic copper solution from tifoo.de.
my amperage was low,only 0.35, because by higher amperage i got big bubbles on the surface. by 0,35 endured process more than 10 hours,the bubbles was much smaller so the item appeared just velvety. not shiny. another items had cracks too on copper surface.
what i did wrong? can copper solution be wrong?
i hang up the copper-object onto silver stick with thin 0,5mm silver wire.
my rectifier shows weird numbers. amperage was almost 0. if i tried raise amperage,then voltage raised heavily , but amperage very slowly. by 0,4 amperage was voltage already 4 and my object was getting quickly black. silver anode was now muddy too.i did anode clean and lower amperage/voltage. my muddy object get back little bit lighter,but stays still muddy.
my clear silver solution become more and more blue. my first pretty muddy object was pretty nice in proportion to anothers. my silver solution is now same color as copper solution,alltough i used inbetween coffee filters and so on.. is this solution now useless?
i tried now enamel the objects. because they was so ugly. i prefer always silver.but the silver coat stays so thin, that after burning out the original object was silver surface more dirty as before-it was black-seems that its copper oxide. i put object after annealing into acid.no betterment.
then i put the ultrasound machine. vibration makes silver surface partially broken. bad idea.
my purpose was enamelling. copper is not the best choice, because heating will make copper allways black .i thought,that if i overcoat the cheap copper with silver, is not problem.
then i tried electroform just in case silver conducted surface directly in silver solution with silveranode,silver wire and so on... but my electroformed insect comes out peeled and crusted.
there is only one volume button. is that problem? Must i buy different rectifier with separately adjustable voltage/amperage?
i never catch bright and smooth copper surface,alltough i used so low amperage as possible.
and i have no idea, what i was doing wrong. the insructables seems after all so easy.
Honestly, I do not know the exact chemical composition of the solution. It is always something I have purchased/used pre-made. I do know it contains Cupric sulfate, sulfuric acid, sodium potassium tartate, and benzidine compound. what country are you in? I may be able to help you find local suppliers.
I am in Bulgaria. I can freely find Cupric sulfate here. Do you think it will work as good alone? And: what do the indications on the electric device mean? The first is voltage (should be less than 1 volt, as far as I got you), but what is the second one?
Hmm... this I'm unsure of... Let me check some of my sources and get back to you... maybe Solidification has some knowledge here?
Are you familiar with the book "the complete metalsmith" by Tim McCreight? I found this information on how to mix your own solution. "Prepare enough electrolyte to completely submerge the object. Using protective clothing and ventilation, mix one pound of copper sulfate with 100cc of sulfuric acid and a half gallon of distilled water. Stir gently until the copper sulfate dissolves. This solution is used at room temperature." Hope this helps!
Thank you so much for the information. But is that the general solution (for copper, bronze, silver, etc) or just when electroplating with copper?
This solution will only work for copper (the copper sulfate is a salt of copper, and gives up its copper to the object, while pulling more copper ions from the feed-stock to maintain the balance in the solution).
Most electroplating/forming is done with a solution that is specific for the metal being plated. However, there are a few general-purpose solutions. From what I can tell, they normally aren't liquids you'd want to have in your kitchen.
The one notable exception I've seen recently is in this patent by Richard Lacey (http://www.google.com/patents/US20050230264). I don't know of a commercial supplier of it (I've looked - if you find one, let me know!), even though the ingredients are widely available.


Tides - We are leaving the work area to make a port call, should I reset Tides?
There is no need to reset the Tides calculation and it is recommended to carry on running Ultra/Apex & Tides.
Any changes to the vessel's Antenna Height will have to be measured and entered so that Geoid Tide is correct as taking on fuel, water, etc. during the port call is likely to result in a change in draft and therefore in antenna height.


text:
The Tokyo Bureau of Sewerage
Where Tokyo Controls Its Sewers
I must admit that this isn't the typical tourist site. And I swear that I wasn't even looking for it. I was walking around the neighborhood one morning, before moving on to my next destination in Japan, and there it was. The headquarters of the Bureau of Sewerage for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
I was staying in the Asakusa area of Tokyo. Asakusa is in Taitō-ku or Taitō Ward, north of Akihabara and east of Ueno. That's a great place to stay. There are several interesting sights, nice budget accommodation, and transportation is easy.
Maybe most importantly, you don't have to change trains at all to get there from both Haneda and Narita international airports. I have been very jet-lagged when I arrive in Japan, as I'm getting off a 12-hour flight that crossed 12 time zones. Easy transport is good!
Sensō-ji is a large Buddhist temple complex in Asakusa. It is the oldest, founded in 618 CE, and one of the most important Buddhist temples in Tokyo. It is the most-visited religious site in Japan, and the second-most-visited world-wide after the Hindu pilgrimage center of Sabarimala.
When you first arrive, severely jet-lagged, you may be awake by 5 AM. Go to the temple for the morning service! It starts at 6 AM.
Smell the incense, listen to the chants. It's very peaceful, a few people from the neighborhood will stop by on their way to work. A bow, a quick prayer, sometimes an irrelevant Shintō-specific double clap, and off they go.
Starting in early May, the temple becomes a madhouse by mid to late morning. Large groups move through, talking and taking pictures. Their tour group leaders are shouting in attempts to organize them.
to Japan
I was staying at the Nui Hostel at the beginning of the trip. After 3 days in Tokyo I would head south and visit several other places in Japan. I went for a walk along the river before getting my pack and starting toward the train station. I saw this map along the riverside path. Nui is just above the post office on the opposite side of the river:
Look at that, it's the Capital Bureau of Sewerage! I'll walk past there on my way back to the hostel to pick up my pack. It's the large square light red building seen in the distance below.
Here it is. The light colored buildings to the right are an electrical power facility. The Bureau of Sewerage is the light red colored building.
I thought at first that there might be a small treatment facility here, between the wall along the riverside walk and the building. But that's just a parking lot. The water gates are for storm drainage control, and just happen to be right beside the Bureau's building.
Some very kawaii signs provide an overview of what's here. In Japan, even the wastewater is kawaii.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government operates wastewater treatment for the entire city. It is divided into 10 treatment districts, and is serviced by 13 treatment plants. Their web site includes a map showing the districts and the locations of the plants.
The system handles 4.58 million cubic meters of sewage every day. That is collected from a population of about 8.7 million people in an area of almost 58,000 hectares.
The system has just over 16,000 kilometers of sewer lines. Just over 1,000 kilometers of that is the trunk lines, with diameters of 8 meters or more. The branch sewer lines make up the remainder. There are 84 pumping stations.
There are 484,058 manholes providing street and sidewalk level access to the system.
In 1965, only 35% of the population was connected to the sewage treatment system. The percentage grew rapidly, reaching 93% by 1990 and 100% by 1995. The surrounding area was at 99% coverage by 2015.
in Japan
They inspect the system with cameras, and use rigid vinyl chloride lining to reinforce lines where the concrete is deteriorating or the reinforcing steel is rusting. Meanwhile, full reconstruction projects are underway. They plan for a service life of 50 years, hoping to extend that to 80 years. Of course, with this being Japan, the designs are resilient to earthquakes and they have backup electrical generators to run their pumps.
See their site for lots more!
Bureau of Sewerage
Tokyo Metropolitan Government
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