One Step Closer to Building a Simulated Human Brain  The Holy
Grail of neuroscience is a complete map of all of the synaptic
connections in your brain — which could allow us to describe the
very flow of information in the brain.  And now, researchers
working at the Blue Brain Project have successfully
reconstructed a virtual microcircuit that is making it possible
to predict the locations of synapses in the neocortex. This
breakthrough could dramatically accelerate the brain-mapping
project — while adding further credence to the suggestion that a
simulated brain may someday be possible.  The Blue Brain Project
was founded in 2005 by the Brain and Mind Institute of the École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. Their goal is
to create a synthetic brain by reverse-engineering the mammalian
brain down to the molecular level. To do so, they're using a
Blue Gene supercomputer that runs NEURON software — a
configuration that has resulted in a biologically realistic
model of neurons.  Prior to their wo