The human brain project

Europe’s Human Brain Project aims to unravel the brain’s mysteries and, after a difficult start, has made substantial progress in mapping how thoughts and decision making are generated.

The brave new world of neuroscience

Mapping cell types in the brain and how they communicate with one another allows neuroscientists to understand how the brain works, and what happens when cells go missing or malfunction.

The mind monster

Halloween is the time for scary stories, but why are some people more easily spooked by stories than others? It could be down to the way their inability to picture stories in their minds.

Insights from the ‘edge of chaos’

Some neuroscience theories suggest the human brain operates best ‘at the edge of chaos’. Now scientists in Australia and Japan have found that keeping a nanowire network at the edge of becoming chaotic is the best state for it to produce useful signals to solve problems.