Chinese scientists aim for world's most detailed map of human brain

NANJING, Dec 06 (Xinhua): Why do some brains discover the laws of universe, while others create soul-stirring music or paintings? How is memory and consciousness generated?
We can observe billions of stars and detect ripples in space, but we still barely understand our brains, which can fathom the universe.
Their sophisticated structure and the number of neurons are only estimates.
Now Chinese scientists are planning to draw the clearest yet three-dimensional map of the intricate neurons and blood vessels in the human brain.
This ambitious project is like taking 3D photos of a huge forest of nearly 100 billion trees, seeing not only the whole forest, but also every twig and leaf on each tree.
"Our current methods cannot see both the trees and the forest. We aim to develop new methods to obtain a high-resolution map to see clearly how the neural network is connected," said Luo Qingming, leader of the research.