Blue Brain project
In May 2005, the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, bought a multimillion-dollar IBM Blue Gene/L supercomputer for a two-year project in which they hope to create a 3D blueprint of the human brain to further cognition research. So far, the group has simulated the firing of 10,000 neurons in a single column (a column typically contains 100,000 neurons) of the neocortex, the part of the brain responsible for higher-level thought and action. The current simulation produces a terabyte of data and is but a small fraction of what it takes to map the brain’s billions of neurons. With enough money, current technology could compute all those neurons, which is why the project is trying to get more funding from the Swiss government to buy two more Blue Genes (hehe, jeans). The supercomputer is running Phil Goodman’s MPI-based Neocortical Simulator (NCS) software, to be combined with Michael Hines’ NEURON, and has a media center to display the 3D simulations, which is apparently like sitting inside the brain. According to Henry Markram, head of the Brain and Mind Institute at EPFL, it "immediately allows us to assess the value of the data to discern: Is this something we want to save and analyze later? It’s also a lot of fun."
Blueprinting the human brain, ZDnet.com
Brain Mind Institute - Blue Brain Project, EPFL.ch