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This story is from the category The Brain
Date posted: 26/05/2009 In recent years, chip makers have conlcuded that the race to produce ever faster circuits is a fool's game. As the clock speed increases, the amount of energy lost as heat becomes too large to dissipate efficiently and in any case, the waste is unjustifiable. That raises some interesting questions about the human brain, says Jan Karbowski at the Sloan-Swartz Center for Theoretical Neurobiology at the California Institute of Technology. Karbowski points out that the problem of heat transfer could be a serious factor shaping brain evolution and so has embarked on a program to determine the relationship between brain temperature, its size, cerebral power generated and neural activity. The question on Karbowski's mind is whether there is any thermodynamic limit on brain size. And if so, does 5 kg, which Karbowski says is the mass of the largest mammalian brain, approach that limit? See the full Story via external site: www.technologyreview.com Most recent stories in this category (The Brain): 25/05/2013: Scientists develop worm EEG to test the effects of drugs |
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