The optimal direction of lines in the visual field to which neurons in the visual cortex respond changes in a regular way when the recording electrode progresses tangentially through the cortex (Hubel and Wiesel, 1962). It is possible to reconstruct the field of orientations from long, sometimes multiple parallel penetrations (Hubel and Wiesel, 1974; Albus, 1975) by assuming that the orientations are arranged radially around centers. A method is developed which makes it possible to define uniquely the position of the centers in the vicinity of the electrode track. They turn out to be spaced at distances of about 0.5 mm and may be tentatively identified with the positions of the giant cells of Meynert.

We summarise the discussions at a virtual Community Workshop on Cold Atoms in Space concerning the status of cold atom technologies, the prospective scientific and societal opportunities offered by their deployment in space, and the developments needed before cold atoms could be operated in space. The cold atom technologies discussed include atomic clocks, quantum gravimeters and accelerometers, and atom interferometers. Prospective applications include metrology, geodesy and measurement of terrestrial mass change due to, e.g., climate change, and fundamental science experiments such as tests of the equivalence principle, searches for dark matter, measurements of gravitational waves and tests of quantum mechanics. We review the current status of cold atom technologies and outline the requirements for their space qualification, including the development paths and the corresponding technical milestones, and identifying possible pathfinder missions to pave the way for missions to exploit the full potential of cold atoms in space. Finally, we present a first draft of a possible road-map for achieving these goals, that we propose for discussion by the interested cold atom, Earth Observation, fundamental physics and other prospective scientific user communities, together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and national space and research funding agencies.

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This volume presents a collection of contributions that were published in "Pure and Applied Geophysics - pageoph" and which deals with the major earthquake that hit Illapel, Chile on September 16, 2015 with magnitude 8.3, and associated trans-oceanic tsunami. The subducting Nazca plate beneath the Andes caused this major earthquake, generating strong shaking, permanent deformation, free oscillations of the Earth, and tsunamis. This event occurred in the flat-angle subducting segment of the plate. The generated tsunami spread throughout the entire Pacific Ocean and was recorded by numerous coastal tide gauges and open-ocean DART stations.\ud All articles give an up-to-date account of research in one of the most active seismic zones worldwide. An introductory article by Kenji Satake rounds this collection off

The tilt/strainmeter network of the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Trieste, has by now a long history of records, the Trieste Grotta Gigante horizontal pendulum station having been set up in 1959 and the Friuli tilt/strainmeter stations in 1977. Since then the stations have been continuously recording the strain-rate in one of the most seismic areas of the Alpine arc, giving invaluable information on crustal deformation in a tectonically active area. Although maintaining essentially the same mechanical features from the time of installation, the instrumentation has undergone modernization, in order to apply recent technical developments to the network. This regards mainly data acquisition, which now, except for one station, is digital. The data are all available and are stored in the Deformation-Database of the Department of Earth Sciences. At first a description of the essential technical and mechanical properties of the instrumentation constituting the network is given. The mean power spectrum of all instruments covering five decades is presented, which is a powerful means to compare the quality of different stations. Following theoretical considerations of the expected pre- or coseismic deformation accompanying local events, the observations of those events is presented, which ought to give the greatest signals. The coseismic steps are modeled for those events for which a fault plane solution was available.