Mapping the mind

Mapping the brain´s exact micro-circuitry in order to get much clearer answers is an undertaking on a completely different scale, not least because the human brain has 100 billion neurons, each one linked to around 10,000 others. And yet such detail is becoming tantalisingly within reach as scientists in a number of major projects are beginning to make progress in understanding, modelling and simulating the brain down to nanometre resolutions. Scientists may be able to improve treatments for neurodegenerative conditions, and even make faster computers, by figuring out how the human brain learns and remembers.