BY BARBARA PALMER

IN HER RESEARCH, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Professor SUSAN MCCONNELL studies how neurons in the cerebral cortex are wired together to make functional circuits. Last week, alert channel-surfers spotted McConnell making another kind of circuit -- in competition at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in Madison Square Garden. McConnell's dog -- known around the house as "Indy" and formally as "Ch. Weetoneon Dirt Devil" -- is a Puli, a Hungarian sheep-herding dog, which won the "Best of Breed" award at last week's show. The breed's most distinctive characteristic is its coiled, mop-like hair -- Indy's coat takes an hour to wash and three hours and three blow dryers to dry. This is McConnell's seventh time in 10 years attending the prestigious dog show, where she's collected the "Best of Breed" award five times with four different dogs. Her TV appearances precipitate wonderful e-mails from colleagues and students, McConnell said. "My favorite ones start out, 'I was just lying on the sofa ... ' "

THE BELLS ARE BACK. THE HOOVER TOWER carillon, sent to the Netherlands for recasting in 2000, returned to campus this week. A crane will lift the carillon's 48 bells to the tower's 14th floor observation deck, where a protective "cabin" will be built around the bells. Along with recasting the carillon's original 35 bells and adding 13 more bells, the restoration project included replacing the carillon's mechanism, frame, keyboard and clappers and restoring the automatic-play drum, which was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The Belgian carillon was part of the New York World's Fair of 1939-40 and was presented to the Hoover Institution by the Belgian American Educational Foundation in appreciation of Herbert Hoover's famine relief efforts during and after the World War. There's still a month or so of work to be done before the carillon will play, said CALEB OFFLEY, a spokesperson at the Hoover Institution. The observation deck is closed until April 15.

The Hoover Tower carillon returns home after recasting in the Netherlands. Photo: Jack Hubbard

Write to Barbara Palmer at barbara.palmer@stanford.edu or mail code 2245 or call her at 724-6184.

Barbara Palmer