The Internet can easily Fit Inside our Brain

A team of scientists from the Salk Institute of Biology has made a breathtaking discovery. According to their findings, the human brain is so capacious that the Internet can easily fit inside our brain. Their research would suggest that the human brain can assimilate an amount of information equal to one petabyte.

During the last decades, we have witnessed a whopping evolution in computer technology. Just to see where we began, in 1977, Apple has announced that Apple II, their newest design had a storing capacity of 64 kilobytes. Decades later, we managed to create small and portable hard drives which are able to store up to 8 terabytes of information.

And it’s not something new under the sun when we say that computers were created to mimic how the human brain works.

This was also the thesis of those working on human brain project at the Salk Institute of Biology. The team of scientists, while working on a rat’s brain, has made an astonishing discovery. Running at full potential, the human brain is capable of storing no less than one petabyte of information. This means that the Internet can easily fit inside our brain and one can perform a Google search just by thinking about it.

So, how was this fact uncovered? While performing certain studies on a rat’s brain, the scientists focused their attention toward the hippocampal area. Throughout their research, they’ve uncovered that the neurons lodged inside the hippocampus are capable of handling a high amount of information while using little power.

After uncovering this fact, the team proceeded into running a computer simulation on a portion of the rat’s brain. They have discovered, that under certain circumstances, that when a neuron wants to communicate with another neuron, the first neuron’s axon would send out two identical messages to the other neuron. In turn, the first neuron’s axon would form out two dendritic connection with the second neuron.

The difference between the two newly-formed dendrites was insignificant, scientists said that there was an 8 percent offset between the two bridge connections. But, upon a closer study, the scientists found no less than 26 different types of synapses, whereas the medical literature considered there were only 3.

According to their estimates, one neuron alone is capable of storing 4.7 bytes worth of information. Moreover, it would seem that there a 20 percent possibility that a neuron can power another neuron, the matter depending on the strength of the synapse. Scientists have determined that the human brain can consume this little energy by constantly regulating the size and shape of synapses.

Also, much like a computer, the brain can also prioritize certain actions by regulating the size and strength of synapses.

Researchers can use this study in order to develop faster and smarter computers.

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