Matthew Herper, Forbes Staff I cover science and medicine, and
believe this is biology's century. Behind a black curtain in a
small room a titanium sapphire laser is prepared to fire at a
tiny and very surprising target: a half-centimeter glass window
surgically implanted into the skull of a live mouse. If all goes
right the laser will fire for a quadrillionth of a second while
the mouse runs on a white, treadmill-like ball and watches a
computer screen. Thanks to special dyes, certain brain cells
will glow green if the mouse is using them, their image captured
by cameras capable of detecting a single photon. The point to
all this Star Trek style technology could not be more profound.
That tiny tangle of tissue in the mouse’s skull turns nerve
impulses from the rodent’s eyes into an interaction. Decoding
that process would give scientists the first true window into
how a mammalian brain experiences the world. It has a secondary
benefit, too. Looking over the contraption puts a big–and pretty
rare–smile on the