I found out he died after I returned from a long trip. But it turns out
he died just 1 day prior to a conversation I was having with one of the
researchers at the conference. I don't often get to talk about neural
darwinism ... and never with anyone in the field of neuropsych. That
researcher had just come from a neuropsych meeting and I wanted to know
how that crowd felt about Edelman's later ideas (including his
collaboration with Tononi). He had no idea how the others felt. But it
was an interesting coincidence that we'd talked about him the day after
his death.
I know some people who think his later work was ... muddled. But,
personally, I'm very grateful for the brave ones who put their ideas out
there despite whatever "consensus" they might face. I'll miss him.
On 06/26/2014 01:10 PM, Roger Critchlow wrote:
> The beginning of the obituary in Science:
>
> Gerald M. Edelman, who was born in New York in 1929, died at his home in
> La Jolla, California, on 17 May 2014. With him, biology has lost a great
> scientist and something even rarer—a profound thinker. Edelman's work in
> the 1960s revealed the chemical structure of antibody molecules, for
> which he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1972 with
> Rodney Porter. In the 1970s, Edelman turned to studying how cells stick
> to each other, which led to the discovery of cell adhesion molecules
> (CAMs). Afterward, Edelman directed much of his efforts to understanding
> “how the brain gives rise to the mind” and formulated a general theory
> of brain function—the theory of neuronal group selection.
--
glen e. p. ropella, 971-255-2847,
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