Science and Technology in the News part 2 Science and Technology
in the News part 1 is here Computer modeling: brain in a box 23
February 2012 Henry Markram’s controversial proposal for the
Human Brain Project (HBP) — an effort to build a supercomputer
simulation that integrates everything known about the human
brain, from the structures of ion channels in neural cell
membranes up to mechanisms behind conscious decision-making —
may soon fulfill his ambition. The project is one of six
finalists vying to win €1 billion (US$1.3 billion) as one of the
European Union’s two new decade-long Flagship initiatives. The
HBP would integrate these discoveries, he said, and create
models to explore how neural circuits are organized, and how
they give rise to behavior and cognition. Ultimately, said
Markram, the HBP would even help researchers to grapple with
disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. He proposed to model
everything, “from the genetic level, the molecular level, the
neurons and synapses, how microcircuits are