Over the next decade, both the US and the EU will be conducting billion-dollar studies of the most complex, powerful computer in existence: the human brain. The American project will build a map of the brain, while the Swiss-led European effort will build a complete simulated brain.
From a New York Times report on the U.S. project:
From a Popular Science report on the European project, described as a CERN for the brain:
From a New York Times report on the U.S. project:
... a decade-long scientific effort to examine the workings of the human brain and build a comprehensive map of its activity, seeking to do for the brain what the Human Genome Project did for genetics. [...] a concerted effort to advance the knowledge of the brain’s billions of neurons and gain greater insights into perception, actions and, ultimately, consciousness. Scientists with the highest hopes for the project also see it as a way to develop the technology essential to understanding diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as to find new therapies for a variety of mental illnesses.
From a Popular Science report on the European project, described as a CERN for the brain:... the Switzerland-based Human Brain Project, which won $1.3 billion last month to build the human brain in a silicon substrate. Awarded by the European Commission, the prize will be doled out over the next decade as the researchers model brain cells down to the thousands of synapses on each neuron that pass signals between the cells.
The Human Brain Project is a collaboration between some 80 research institutions in Europe. The team will use supercomputers to investigate how and which genes are expressed by neurons. One big challenge will be figuring out how to differentiate between various types of neurons. Another problem is that the computing power Markram needs doesn't exist yet, but the team will start working on a model to unify brain research efforts in the meantime.
