News

A compilation of the Brains, Minds and Machines Summer Course 2014 projects is now available online.
CBMM Memo, Summer Course
March 9, 2015
A compilation of abstracts from the student projects of the 2014 Brains, Minds, and Machines Summer Course has been published online as CBMM Memo 024.
The inaugural Center for Brains, Minds and Machines (CBMM) Summer Course was...
Potrait of Prof. Shimon Ullman
Prof. Shimon Ullman has been awarded the Israel Prize in Mathematics, Computer Sience
March 2, 2015
Prof. Shimon Ullman was awarded the 2015 Israel Prize in Mathematics and Computer Science Research. The Israel Prize committee cited Ullman for his “far-reaching contributions to artificial intelligence and general cognition, and...
Graphic of brain and video game characters.
Game-playing software holds lessons for neuroscience
News, DeepMind
February 25, 2015
DeepMind computer provides new way to investigate how the brain works.
By Elizabeth Gibney
 
CBMM Partner - DeepMind's research is the focus of a recent Nature article. The online article includes a video featuring interviews...
Future of Life Institute
Request for proposals: Making AI robust and beneficial
grants, Future of Life Institute, artificial intelligence
February 5, 2015
Initial proposals (300–1000 words) due March 1, 2015
The Future of Life Institute, based in Cambridge, MA and headed by Max Tegmark (MIT), is seeking proposals for research projects aimed to maximize the future societal benefit...
“Dahlia” by Katinka Matson | www.katinkamatson.com
Prof. Poggio’s response to Edge Question 2015: WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT MACHINES THAT THINK?
artificial intelligence, News, Poggio
January 21, 2015

The Edge Foundation poses an annual questions to researchers and intellectuals. The Edge Question 2015 is “WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT MACHINES THAT THINK?”
CBMM Director Tomaso Poggio is one of the 191 contributors to have his...
An image of neurons in a mouse hippocampus taken with expansion microscopy. Credit Ed Boyden, Fei Chen, Paul Tillberg/MIT
Expansion Microscopy Stretches Limits of Conventional Microscopes
circuits for intelligence, News
January 19, 2015
Today’s New York Times article covers Prof. Ed Boyden’s new Expansion Microscopy research:
Expansion Microscopy Stretches Limits of Conventional Microscopes
by John Markoff
New York Times
“A new laboratory technique enables...
Boyden, E., Chen, F. & Tillberg, P. / MIT / Courtesy of National Institutes of Health A slice of a mouse brain (left) was expanded by nearly five-fold in each dimension by adding a water-soaking salt. The result — shown at smaller magnification (right) for comparison — has its anatomical structures are essentially unchanged.
Blown-up brains reveal nanoscale details: Material used in diaper absorbant can make brain tissue bigger and enable ordinary microscopes to resolve features down to 60 nanometres.
boyden, circuits for intelligence, News
January 15, 2015
by Ewen Callaway
Nature, Vol. 517, 254,
online January 09, 2015
January 15, 2015
doi:10.1038/nature.2015.16667
 
A recent article in Nature covers the Boyden Lab ExM research as presented by Prof. Ed  Boyden at SfN 2014:
“...
Using a new technique that allows them to enlarge brain tissue, MIT scientists created these images of neurons in the hippocampus. Image: Fei Chen and Paul Tillberg
MIT team enlarges brain samples, making them easier to image. New technique enables nanoscale-resolution microscopy of large biological specimens.
boyden, circuits for intelligence, News
January 15, 2015
MIT News has published an article covering the new expansion microscopy technique developed by Prof. Ed Boyden’s lab.
MIT team enlarges brain samples, making them easier to image
New technique enables nanoscale-resolution...
Expansion microscopy enables researchers to resolve details down to about 70 nanometers, while 300 nanometers was the previous limit with a conventional microscope. Images of a mouse brain segment enlarged (right) have greater resolution than those acquired using conventional microscopy without water expansion (left). Credit: Ed Boyden, Fei Chen, Paul Tillberg
Bigger is better for brain tissue understanding. Chemicals commonly used in diapers enable brain samples to be physically enlarged with water, allowing researchers to see nanoscale details
NSF, Press Release
January 15, 2015
NSF Press Release 15-002
While most efforts to understand the brain focus on new technologies to magnify small anatomical features, engineers at the MIT-based Center for Brains, Minds and Machines have found a way to make brains...
A week at MIT; Workshop on quantitative methods in biology draws diverse undergrads from across the country.
A week at MIT; Workshop on quantitative methods in biology draws diverse undergrads from across the country [MIT News]
News, diversity, workshop
January 13, 2015
Jessica Fujimori | MIT News correspondent
MIT News published an article on the annual Quantitative Methods Workshop led by Mandana Sassanfar. Pictured above is Prof. Ellen C. Hildreth with students attending the workshop.
“The...

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