Integrated Calendar

We are working on new strategies for self-assembly. Systems whose study is relatively advanced are the so-called cyclo[m]pyridine[n]pyrroles. These systems permit self-assembly via anion recognition. They also display substrate-dependent responsive features. This has made them of interest as sensor systems and functional materials whose ground and excited state properties may be “switched” through modulation of solvent, pH, and exposure to ionic and neutral analytes.
Complementing work on charged building blocks is the use of electron rich calix[4]pyrroles. Here, anion binding serves to switch the fundamental conformation of the core receptor so as to control self-assembly. This allows the production of monomers, capsules, and oligomers via the judicious choice of calix[4]pyrrole, anion, cation, solvent, and targeted substrate. It also permits control over charge transfer interactions and the construction of multi-state molecular logic devices. One of these has permitted inters-species "chemical communication".
Finally, a set of "Texas-size" box-like receptors has been created. These are permitting the chemistry of self-assembly and information storage to be extended into the realm of soft materials. Applications in the realm of water purification are also being explored.
This work was made possible by the dedicated efforts of many coworkers and collaborators who will be thanked during the presentation. Support from the U.S. National Science Foundation, US National Institutes of Health, the US Department of Energy, and the Robert A. Welch Foundation is acknowledged. Funding has also come from Shanghai University.

What does it feel like to be a bat? Is conscious experience of echolocation closer to that of vision or audition? Or, echolocation is non-conscious processing and it doesn't feel anything? This famous question of bats' experience, posed by a philosopher Thomas Nagel in 1974, clarifies the difficult nature of the mind-body problem. Why a particular sense, such as vision, has to feel like vision, but not like audition, is puzzling. This is especially so given that any conscious experience is supported by neuronal activity. Activity of a single neuron appears fairly uniform across modalities, and even similar to those for non-conscious processing. Without any explanation on why a particular sense has to feel as the way it does, researchers even cannot approach the question of the bats' experience. Is there any theory that gives us a hope for such explanation? Currently, probably none, except for one. Integrated Information Theory (IIT), proposed by Tononi in 2004 has a potential to offer a plausible explanation. IIT essentially claims that any system that is composed of causally interacting mechanisms can have conscious experience. And precisely how the system feels like is determined by the way the mechanisms influence each other in a holistic way. In this talk, I will give a brief explanation of the essence of IIT and provide initial empirical partial tests of the theory, proposing a potential scientific pathway to approach bats' conscious experience. If IIT, or its improved or related versions, is validated enough, it will gain credibility to accept its prediction on rough nature of bats' experience. If we can gain a sophisticated insight as to whether bats' experience is closer to vision or audition, it is already a tremendously big step in consciousness science, which is just a first yet critical one, possibly a similar level of the breakthrough in cosmology in precisely estimating the age of the universe.
References:
0) talk slide: https://www.slideshare.net/NaoNaotsuguTsuchiya/17-june-20-empirical-test-of-iit-dresden
1) Andrew M. Haun, Masafumi Oizumi, Christopher K. Kovach, Hiroto Kawasaki, Hiroyuki Oya, Matthew A. Howard, Ralph Adolphs, Naotsugu Tsuchiya, (2017, accepted) “Conscious perception as integrated information patterns in human electrocorticography” eNeuro link
2) Tsuchiya “"What is it like to be a bat?" - a pathway to the answer from the Integrated Information Theory ” Philosophy Compass (2017) link
3) Oizumi M, Tsuchiya N, Amari S, “Unified framework for quantifying causality and integrated information in a dynamical system” (2016) PNAS link

Nanotechnology has provided a novel technology platform which can address critical energy and environmental problems and enable new opportunities. In the past decade, my group has conducted research on new ideas to address problems related to energy conversion, storage and saving, and environment cleaning (air, water and soil). Here I will show exciting examples, including: 1) high energy battery materials including Si and Li metal anodes and S cathodes; 2) electrochemical tuning of catalysts; 3) Water disinfection using conducting nanofilters and uranium extraction for seawater. 4) Nanofiber air filters for efficient PM2.5 removal and low air resistance. 5) Cooling and heating textile for personal thermal management. Nanotechnology represents the most important foundational technology platform to impact nearly all areas of applications.