Photo Gallery Modelling the Human Brain
"The brain is a magical machine," says Henry Markram. But he is launching a vast research effort to make it less magical. He wants to create a computer model of the human brain, and is hoping that it might help make headway toward curing several incurable diseases.
"This is one of the three great challenges facing mankind. We must understand the earth, space and the brain. We must understand what makes us human," says Markram, pictured here. He is hoping to obtain a grant from an EU research fund for his effort to create a complete computer model of the brain.
A 3-D model of a neuron created as part of the ongoing Blue Brain Poject in Switzerland. Markram has been part of the project and is now interested in creating a complete computer model of the brain.
The supercomputers at the Jülich Research Center near Cologne, pictured here, are to deal with the vast amounts of data necessary to model the brain.
One of the challenges for scientists working under Thomas Lippert, head of the supercomputer center in Jülich, is to figure out how to make the computer process only a certain part of the data at a given time, but without completely losing sight of the rest. They also have to develop an imaging method, such as large, three-dimensional holograms, to depict the massive amounts of data.
The Blue Brain Project in Lausanne. Researchers with the project have modelled a tiny part of a rat brain, down to molecular level.
A rat brain sample being used in an experiment as part of the Blue Brain Project. It is important to understand the rules of communication among the nerve cells. The individual cells do not communicate at random, but instead seek specifically targeted communication partners.
A lab assistant for the Blue Brain Project. For his next project, Henry Markram is hoping to secure up to 1 billion from a European Union research fund.
