Strangely enough, the article in today’s New York Times about Cornelia I. Bargmann‘s study of the neurology of worms, with it’s “social map” graphic of the 302 neurons of the roundworm caenorhabditis elegans, made me think about Portland, Maine. The round worm is of interest because “the study of its nervous system offers one of the most promising approaches for understanding the human brain, since it uses much the same working parts but is around a million times less complex.” When Time Warner rolled out Road Runner in 1997, they chose Portland as their test market, for reasons perhaps similar to why scientists study the roundworm’s brain—in many ways it has many of the “working parts” of much larger metros, but at a scale that is much easier to keep track of.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Portland on the Brain: the Small City as Scale Model - Anthony Wing Kosner - Quantum of Content - Forbes
Author:Anthony Wing Kosner
