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October / November 1976
From “Pharmacology and Brain”: From time immemorial, drugs have been used to restore mental health or to analyze emotions. It was reported that Homeric physician Polydama gave Menelaos and Helen “a cure for grief and anger, a cure for depression” on their way home to Troy. The number of drugs available today is staggering. Some have changed medical procedures; others have changed the shape of our color. Many have fewer and fewer activities than ever before. The development of such drugs compares with our understanding of how drugs work in cells to change systems. In this regard, one of the most effective research methods is to combine how these nerve cells interact with other cells in the body, as well as how different chemicals can alter these connections.
May / June 1987
From “Creating Computers That Think How We Work”: Astronomers have discovered that the structure of the brain is essential for its function. Individual neurons are not smart in themselves, but when combined they are much smarter. The problem is, no one knows how to do it. Not all neurons are very fast: when they send their electrical signals to other neurons, they are 100,000 times smaller than computer-generated exchanges. But what our brain desperately needs produces “wetware,” as it is sometimes called. The brain is made up of 10 billion to trillion neurons, each of which can be connected anywhere from 1,000 to 100,000. If a large network of interconnected neurons is formed into a massive plot that we call our mind, perhaps a network of interconnected mechanical networks could form a thinking machine.
July / August 2014
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