A Rule of Thumb That Unscrambles the Brain. ‘A new breed of animal,

dubbed the “sand

mouse,” has been added to

the annals of biological

science, and it has become

the subject of a scientific

challenge.

Last week Dr. John J.

Hopfield, a Princeton

professor known for seminal

discoveries in computer

science, biology and physics,

posed an unusual test to his

fellow scientists.

Dr. Hopfield challenged

them to discover a simple,

new computational principle

— a general rule of thumb —

for how the brain of this

creature works, using only

the power of deductive

reasoning and a set of facts

about the animal that Dr.

Hopfield and a former

student, Dr. Carlos Brody,

have posted on a Web site.’ New York Times