My boss (a professor who studies the retina) was playing basketball with a colleague who studies the kidney. As of late, this colleague started getting interested in studying the tongue. My boss said to his colleague, “Finally, you’re getting into sensory neuroscience.”
What a cool area! It’s super interesting to know how the world gets coded into neural signals by our sensory organs.
Incidentally, computers have cameras, microphones, speakers, and now, touchscreens. These are gadget-counterparts to our sensory organs. Computers don’t have noses or tongues yet. When these gadgets come out I’ll have to redraw this picture.
Machine sensors are better than human sensors in many departments. They can sense parts per million of gas, tiny amounts of light, etc. In medicine, the doctor used to taste urine to diagnose diabetes. Now we have sensors for that which give exact numbers. It’s a changin’ world.
danscreativeoulet 