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project.eu/index.html) performed by almost three
hundred experts in neuroscience, medicine, and
computing at an approximate cost of 1,190 euro, is
a continuation of this approach that is carried out
by scientists from European countries to simulate
the actual working of the brain. According to the
Human Brain Project Report (HBP, 2012), the
project has four major goals: generate the data,
advance theory by identifying mathematical
principles that underlie brain organization; offer
services to neuroscientists and clinicians; and
develop applications of first draft models and
prototype technologies. Research areas include
neuroscience: integrative principles of cogni-
tion; medicine: understanding, diagnosing, and
treating brain disease; and advancing computing
technologies: interactive supercomputing for brain
simulation. Six platforms for integrative action
comprise neuroinformatics, brain simulation,
high performance computing, medical informat-
ics, neuromorphic computing, and neurorobotics.
Scientists at Stanford University and the J.
Craig Venter Institute have developed the first
software simulation of an entire organism and mod-
eled an entire organism in terms of its molecular
components and their interactions (Karr et al.,
2012). Modeling of 525 genes and the simulation
of the complete life cycle of a single-cell bacterium
that lives in the human genital and respiratory
tracts is a step toward developing computerized
laboratories that could carry out many-thousands-
of-factors problems involved in researching gene
functions, metabolism, and individual cell pro-
cesses (Markoff, 2012). According to Karr et al.
(2012), “The simulation, which runs on a cluster
of 128 computers, models the complete life span
of the human pathogen
Mycoplasma genitalium
at the molecular level, charting the interactions
of 28 categories of molecules - including DNA,
RNA, proteins and small molecules known as
metabolites, which are generated by cell pro-
cesses. … Currently it takes about 9 to 10 hours
of computer time to simulate a single division of
the smallest cell - about the same time the cell
takes to divide in its natural environment.” In a
few years the researchers will hopefully bring this
to a bigger organism, like E. coli, yeast or even
eventually a human cell.
Figure 2, “Micro Macro” examines the role of
magnification. What seems blurry or insignifi-
cant from a distance, can transfer us on another
level regarding the data details or a conceptual
framework. Be it a telescope or a binocular, a
microscope or an electron microscope, lenses and
digital approaches allow us examining common
truths in a variety of disciplines:
We zoom in on an ancient sailboat but we engage
with life of tiny creatures that we can't see even
through a loupe.
This picture contains images of flat pieces of
wood that remained after completing an educa-
tional 3D model of an animal. The openings on
a wooden surface retained the outlines, patterns,
programs, and the meaning of objects that had
been taken away. It is like a form without contents,
which may one think about the imprinting occur-
ring in early phases of learning, and the effects of
the time and the others gradually washing away
its content. We may insert memory sticks with
software for marketing, architecture, or art creat-
ing, instead of the initial animal forms making a
model. We may also acquire our knowledge about,
for example software, marketing, architecture,
or art images and insert it all into the imprinted
framework in our minds.
Computing Based on Nanosize
Structures in Living Cells
The increasingly overlapping areas of biology,
technology, and art help us focus on the form,
structure, and function of living or life-like things.
Studies on nanosize structures in living cells serve
the computer scientists for developing models
and creating biological computing devices. For
example, a model of a dynamical transport network
