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October / November 1976
From the “Pharmacology and the brain” section: In ancient times, drugs were used to restore mental health or to study the mind. It is said that the Homeric physician Polydama gifted Menelaus and Helen “a drug against sadness and rage, a medicine for living in despair” on their way home to Troy. The number of headless medications available today is countless. Some have changed the trajectory of medical practice; others have changed the fabric of our society. Many have greater action specificity and fewer side effects than ever before. With the development of these drugs we know how drugs work to change behavior at the molecular level. In this regard, one of the most prolific research approaches has examined how nerve cells communicate with other cells in the body and how various drugs can alter that communication.
May / June 1987
From “Designing computers that think the way we do”: Neuroscientists have realized that the architecture of the brain is fundamental to its function. Individual neurons are not inherently intelligent, but when they connect with each other they become relatively intelligent. The problem is, no one knows how they do it. It’s not that neurons are fast: when you send electrochemical messages to other neurons, it’s 100,000 times slower than a regular computer switch. But what our brains lack in speed is made up of “wetware,” as it’s sometimes called. The brain contains 10 trillion neurons, each of which can connect between 1,000 and 100,000 elsewhere. If this vast network of interconnected neurons forms a large collective conspiracy that we call ourselves, perhaps a wide network of interconnected mechanical switches can create a machine that can be thought of.
July / August 2014
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