I'm speeding around the treacherous curves of the freeway that deadends in Pasadena, a leafy, California desert oasis that is home to the fabled Tournament of Roses, on my way to the California Institute of Technology. There, on the third floor of the biology building, is James Bower's computational neuroscience laboratory, where a team of scientists is pushing forward the frontiers of brain research.

But the brain is not surrendering its secrets easily. For the next month, I'll be visiting the Bower lab, where, with state-of-the-art technology -- and some ingenious equipment of their own devising -- James Bower and colleagues are trying to unravel the mysteries of the human mind, to fathom how this incredibly complex piece of machinery processes information. You are welcome to come along, comment, ask questions, and suggest some destinations inside inner space that you'd like to explore.

--Linda Marsa