Profile
Steven Rose
My CV
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Education:
Haberdashers Askes in London and the Cambridge where I studied biochemistry 1956-59
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Qualifications:
BA, PhD
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Work History:
Cambridge, London, Oxford, ANU Canberra, Harvard, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Open University foundation professor 1969-present
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Current Job:
Emeritus professor of neuroscience, Open University
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My Interview
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What topics do you work on?
see above. Also social, legal and ethical aspects of neuroscience, genetics and evolutionary theory
What methods do you use?
see above: in the lab behavioural, physiological, biochemical, morphological
Who was your favourite teacher?
too long ago to remember!
Me and my work
I am a neuroscientist. My research has been learning and memory and how trey are encoded in the brain through changes in the brain’s wiring diagram – that is, its synaptic connectivity. Most of the experimental studies are done working with day-old chicks, who need to learn very quickly about their environment, and particularly what’s good and what’s bad to eat and drink.
Typical day
I’m now retired. When I was working (apart from al the usual admin work a professor and head of dept gets lumbered with) I would spend half a day training chicks in the lab, and half the next day testing them, and preparing their brains for biochemical analysis. Now I mainly write. Our most recent book was Genes Cells and Brains, the Promethean promises of the new biology. The book we are currently working on is about neuroeducation – its promises and limits
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