Philosophy, neuroscience and physics together make strange bedfellows, but these fields and others are now part of a gradual convergence between the sciences and humanities in an attempt to understand the nature of consciousness.

"The University of Arizona is taking the lead in this area," said Michael Cusanovich, UA Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies. "This is an exciting, rapidly evolving area of research."

Specialists and students from around the world gathered at the Tucson Convention Center last week for "Toward a Science of Consciousness 1996," a conference devoted entirely to exploring different approaches of describing and explaining human, animal, and artificial consciousness.

Consciousness, defined as a state of self-awareness and feeling, has only recently been addressed by scientists because it has historically been impossible to explain.

A conference entitled, "Toward a Scientific Basis for Consciousness" was held in Tucson in April 1994. The precursor to last week's gathering, it opened lines of investigation into the chemical nature of consciousness and the idea that the topic must be approached from a multi-disciplinary point of view.

Stuart Hameroff, a UA professor of anesthesiology and a conference founder, said the power behind consciousness studies, it it may be approached both through the sciences and the humanities.

Eventually Hameroff hopes for a acknowledged field of consciousness studies and wants to form a center for consciousness studies at the UA in the near future.

"We hope to be able to fund graduate students split amongst the sciences and arts," he said.

Cusanovich said he had preliminary discussions regarding the possibility, but that no written proposition has been made.

"I told them we would seriously consider a formal proposal in that area," he said.

"It would provide a focus and a center at the university for people to connect and broaden what's able to go on at the UA," said Alfred Kaszniak, a UA psychology professor and member of the conference coordinating committee. "We think of it as an emerging area of specialized knowledge."

Kaszniak also teaches a psychology of consciousness course on campus.

Hameroff said the conference was designed to increase the appreciation of what consciousness is.

"This is to promote the field of consciousness studies on an international scale," Hameroff said. "Our goal is to include all valid approaches to consciousness."

Looking around a large room filled with posters, one can see Hameroff's point. Conference participants could mull around the more 65 presentations, reading and asking the presenters questions about their work.

One title read, "Unity of Consciousness as Epiphenomenon," a project which argued certain traits of consciousness were caused by specific mental processes.

Hameroff's presentation was titled "Orchestrated Objective Reduction In Microtubules." He said he takes a scientific approach to the study, focusing on explaining the neural processes which make consciousness possible.

Sven Arvidson, a professor who teaches a philosophy of consciousness course at Cincinnati's College of Mt. Saint Joseph, travelled across the country to present his own, different view.

"I set out to describe consciousness rather than explain it," he said when comparing his work to some of the other 'hard science' presentations. Arvidson approaches consciousness as a phenomenon rather than a chemical process. He said he looks at its characteristics and learns by description.

"It's a question of what versus a question of why," he said.

Anthony Freeman, managing editor of the Journal of Consciousness Studies, said the conference was important because it brought together representatives from all disciplines pertaining to consciousness.

When both a neuroscientist and a philosopher can recognize the other's work, "we're actually getting a sum greater than the parts," Freeman said. "We are beginning to see a genuine speaking of disciplines to each other."