By Dr. Robert Thorson
‘So the last shall be first, and the first last.” This quote from the King James Bible is my response to Scientific American’s Top 10 stories of 2013. Their tenth-ranked story about the BRAIN initiative is my top story for the year.
I refer to Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies, a national project launched by President Barack Obama last spring. Its goal, based on the White House press release, is to “get a dynamic picture of the brain and better understand how we think, learn and remember.” More succinctly: to dissolve the duality between mind and matter; to link psychology and physiology.
Lest you think this is an impossible dream for laboratory idealists, you may wish to know that half of the $100 million in federal dollars will go to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The remainder is going to the National Institutes of Health for medical applications and to the National Science Foundation for more basic research spanning the “physical, biological, social and behavioral sciences.”
Lest you think we can’t afford this price tag during hard times, it’s trivial when compared to the economic losses caused by congressional posturing during the recent government shutdown. Here, it’s worth noting that federal investment in the Human Genome Project during previous decades has already returned $141 in economic output for every $1 invested by us. The opposite is true for Congress.
Lest you think the outcomes will be largely philosophical, expected highlights include:
Creating new high-tech jobs within a future industry.
Developing methods to “prevent, treat or even reverse the harmful effects of PTSD and traumatic brain injury in returning war veterans.”
Facilitating international cooperation by reducing language barriers through enhanced computation.
And enhancing treatments of degenerative and congenital neurological conditions like Parkinson’s disease and autism, respectively.
Lest you think that American taxpayers will foot the whole bill, an even greater amount has been pledged by private foundations and institutes. National research universities including UConn will play significant roles.
Lest you think the U.S. is going it alone, the European Commission is coordinating a collaborative effort called the Human Brain Project. It hopes to build a mathematical model of the brain within a decade. I’m not referring to artificial intelligence. Instead, I’m referring to creating a map of brain activity that can be used by software designers to simulate how our minds respond to stimuli and create ideas. Physical scientists have done a fine job simulating how our global climate system creates weather. In the future, they might be able to simulate our thoughts about that weather.
One of my early television experiences was watching highlights from John F. Kennedy’s “We choose to go to the moon” speech in 1962. At the time, and being an avid reader of science fiction, I recall being struck by this bold vision, and being hopeful for what the future might bring. Fifty years later, I felt something similar when I heard Obama’s announcement of the BRAIN initiative last spring, which Scientific American referred to as a “moonshot to the head.”
BRAIN makes me hopeful that the rising generation of children might live in a world where an improved understanding of neurochemistry will help reduce domestic violence and promote world peace. That’s my holiday message of hope.
There were, of course, other Top 10 science stories of a more earthly nature. Atmospheric CO2 reached 400 parts per million, the highest it’s been in 800,000 years: the last time it was that high, forests covered the Arctic. Typhoon Haiyan struck last month as the strongest storm ever known to make landfall: Had it struck New York City, damages may have exceeded $50 billion. Exploding over Russia was the Chelyabinsk meteor, the largest since 1908: This surprise visitor raised global awareness of extraterrestrial hazards. The link between fracking, watershed contamination and potentially damaging earthquakes was strengthened by several major studies.
Summing up, it was a year of government ineptitude, concern for earthly affairs and a great leap forward for brain research.