八年前,一组研究大脑的专家们作出判断,探讨人体最复杂的器官的功能的最好方法,就是试验把大脑的一部分在计算机中“培育”。这个试验和它产生的关于大脑功能的新奇理论可能象相对论使物理学发生巨大变化一样引起神经科学的彻底革命。科学家们已制造出塑料心脏,并把肌肉细胞在培养皿中培养。但是能模拟的大脑的一部分在计算机中培 Eight years ago, a group of experts who studied the brain made the best judgment about the function of the most complex organ in the human body by experimenting to “incubate” a portion of the brain in a computer. This experiment, along with the novel theory it produces about brain function, can cause a radical revolution in neuroscience, just as the theory of relativity brought about a dramatic change in physics. Scientists have made plastic hearts and cultured muscle cells in petri dishes. But part of the brain that can be simulated is cultivated in a computer