Millennium Run, Simulating the Universe - The Blue Brain

On the other hand of the spectrum is a project named Blue Brain, being conducted by IBM and EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne). Blue Brain is attempting to track the human brain down to the last neuron, a test with smaller dimensions than the last 2, but in no way a smaller vision. The project possibly got the first half of its name by using a revised version of one of IBM’s Blue Gene supercomputers, this model has the top speed of processing speed of 22.8 TFLOPS.

The project is opening by dedication 2 years to simulating the neocortex, the biggest part of the brain responsible for higher-level thought. The project will then expand into other parts of the brain until a full, working model is formed. The quantity of information needed for this type of simulation calls for all new sorts of algorithms and equations to replicate electro-chemical reactions. This simulation is being conducted with the concept that everything happening inside the brain is able to be measured, quantified, and crashed to mathematical formulas.

To check the various reactions that they are tracking, researchers are using lab tests. They inject dye into a neuron, and then see the responses that occur. Following is a matter of turning these relationships and reactions into computer code. In a lot of ways, the extent of this is perhaps greater than something like Millennium Run in the amount of detailed research it needs and the potential for using the research.

IBM and EPFL assume the research will grow our awareness of how our brains work. May be it could enhance our capability to understand, treat, and protect mental disorders. It might give insight into how various recommended drugs work and how they can be improved.

May be future researches in science, physics and cosmology will be led by computer simulations. We may not be required to wait for geniuses such as Newton and Einstein to be stimulated to uncode the principles of the universe, but instead understand our atmosphere from the help of these experiments. Obviously, simulations need some guiding principle to look at, so we have not yet done with human intelligence.

But as today’s people attempt to show and challenge Einstein’s theory of relativity created a century ago, computers may offer faster solutions. Supercomputers may make it much faster to show the insight or fallacies in proposed theories and through light on the most potential models of the universe and of our minds.