Shi-Wei Chu
National Taiwan University
Biophysical Reports Editor

What are you currently working on that excites you?

We are currently working on developing high-speed volumetric imaging for probing small-animal brain functions. To understand how a brain functions is one of the grand challenges in modern scientific communities. From our perspective, a functional brain is similar to a computer in that it is composed of hardware and software. The former includes matters of neurons, synapses, molecules, etc., and the latter is the rules and operating information used by the brain that might emerge from pan-neuron/synapse functional connections. We feel that the major bottleneck lies in the difficulty directly unraveling the brain “software.” Our strategy is to achieve functional mapping of individual neurons/sectors in a living Drosophila brain, and more efforts are waiting ahead to bridge functional imaging and brain “software.”

What have you read lately that you found really interesting or stimulating?

Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife and The Map of Heaven: How Science, Religion, and Ordinary People Are Proving the Afterlife by Eben Alexander, a professional neurosurgeon in the United States. He had a near-death experience a decade ago and experienced a journey beyond this world, which he reported in detail in these books. These books stimulated me to consider the boundary of science. In particular, I am working on optical imaging and believe in the motto “seeing is believing.” However, knowing that there may be a vast amount of information that cannot be probed with contemporary imaging instruments poses not only superb research challenges, but also many emerging opportunities.