A new way to study the brain's invisible secrets | Ed Boyden

[@colin6768]

I'm so glad we have people like Boyden in the world. This man is frighteningly intelligent - 192 patents granted, 343 pending, 3 degrees from MIT with a 5.0. average (B.S. in electrical engineering and computer science, M.S. in electrical engineering and computer science, B.S. in physics), PhD in neuroscience from Stanford 4.1/4.0. I admire this guy immensely.

[@ShobhitVashistha]

well, this talk definitely expanded my mind... I'll see myself out now...

[@giselledsouza4073]

I see what you did there

[@edendoron899]

bravo! *claps*

[@DMTFLTV]

does anyone else feel like TED has become super super hit-or-miss in 2016? Granted, this is one of those 'Hit' times, but this isn't how it always was.

[@holdmybeer]

it's been like this for half a decade. where have you been?

[@leonopulos]

Be sure to not mess it up with "TEDx"-talks, those anyone can hold, even people how want to sell their product/service/viewpoint/whatever and might come of as really cheesy

[@MinikillerX]

+leonopulos Tai Lopez has a tedx talk lol

[@holdmybeer]

Minikiller1080X / that's pretty sad.

[@xDMrGarrison]

It makes me wonder what their criteria are for letting people talk.

[@WritingSoundscapes]

This is an incredible hypothesis very well explained. Will definitely be following his research!

[@marka112]

I do have to say, working againts the human body imperfections at a molecular level (targeting induvidual molecules) is quite the intreaging thouhgt. Because of people with visions of such things as you, is that we get these movements of improvement. Maybe not tummorow, but one day this method will be helping millions of people. Good presentation on the screen too, the animation definetly filled up my imagination!

[@Enso.]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this method aids in the "complexity problem", but not necessarily the sheer numbers problem. Yes, it would allow easier pinpointing of differences over time for a given network. But making one billion connections more spread out still leaves us with one billion connections, so I'm struggling to see how this would aid in the effort needed to map these pathways- where a signal is coming from and going to. Am I missing something?

[@catchychuckles]

"When I grow up I want to study diapers."

[@Ta3allamOnline]

Any updates?

[@nikhileshmanchi2196]

very nice n well said...hope ur research goes in right way to help humanity

[@ricasiogaming7873]

GENUIS! Give this kid a Nobel prize damn it.

[@XxDjoSlaxX]

Ted talks are my jam, I absolutely love them!!! I listen almost every day to a couple of ted talks! You're amazing guys, keep up the good work!

[@NazwaBricksZajeta]

+TED How can I donate to this? This is an amazing and innovative idea and We really should support this.

[@chaz-e]

This would probably rupture the neurological connections and render the sample useless. But still an interesting way to tackle the problem.

[@AmoghaDalvi]

why/ how would it rupture the connections?

[@jeunjetta]

The pattern of neuronal connections as well as the organised positions of tiny biomolecules are determined by the Electromagnetic field that permeates the brain (and body for that matter). Look at the way a flock of birds fly exactly in sync and even turn sharply with split second precision. Similarly, in real time, the tiny biomolecules will move depending on the pattern of the EM field. This is in fact simple chemistry and physics. We know that molecules react to applied EM fields, particular frequencies pertaining to particular elements. We also know that molecules may respond by emitting or absorbing photons or electrons, thereby creating a bio-feedback loop for strengthening or weakening the applied EM field. The EM field is a sum of a number of fields, including the emissions from the molecules themselves, as well as the EM fields caused by the electrical activity of the neurons firing. (We learnt in high school that an electric current through a wire will create a resulting magnetic field and visa versa. Ampere, Maxwell etc. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_equations).

[@dimzan235]

You epic wrong. U using a cocktail of scientific words to make a soup for idiots

[@juligrlee]

Thanks for this elegant research theory and operalization.

[@Technoxity]

This is an incredible moving point as far as science goes!

[@neethunazareth]

Enjoyed the talk sir. But I wonder how a delicate human cell could expand as it has limited elastic property? Or does it have enough?

[@jeremybumpermanpub7144]

He’s wearing the same clothes here that he wore to a Ted Talk more than ten years ago

[@BunnyFett]

Amazing. I'm so excited for the future.

[@tn9711]

Doesn't the brain have a certain ellasticity to it? If they enlarge the brain would that not mess with the structure?

[@Drakenator]

my guess would be if you remove the elastic membranes and place the brain matter in a gel. this will allow the inside to expand without pushing up against the natural neuro membrane

[@joshpartridge760]

no because it would be enlarging at the same rate all the way around

[@folechno]

This is my primary concern. If all the neurons have very short contacts in the normal structure, but enlarging everything these contacts are removed. One could perhaps then map the large structure, and then reverse-model it back down to normal size, but that's probably easier said than done, especially since there is now more components (the anchors, fluorescent tags, and polymer) that are also interspersed in the swelled brain. I'm not familiar with his work, would have to read some papers to see what is done with the structure and the conclusions they come to.

[@itscatiooo]

My brain sucks.

[@gabriellechapin8291]

I don't think we should eliminate all mental issues as they are different types of awareness and potential. Instead we should understand them better and figure out how to steer the problems toward the potential. Examples include bipolar disorder, autism, and adhd

[@hyenaedits3460]

I think he's talking about things like Alzheimers and PTSD, things that cause actual damage to the brain. Autism and related neurodivergences aren't actually brain damage and don't directly cause brain damage, but some diseases eat away at the brain.

[@roidroid]

6:14 omg it's her again! 8D

[@chaosss444]

the whole time i was waiting for that powder to expand out of the bowl and swallow him

[@Nate.mp4]

His voice just occasionally goes "HWEEP!"

[@brayan9645]

This is fascinating!

[@holdmybeer]

Hopefully within 10 years doctors can fix my horrible memory.

[@khaleddrici4542]

you're so sick as me so we can do it together

[@aaronespinoza5598]

What a brilliant man

[@moisesalmada8380]

imagine if we could detect brain waves and turn them into virtual reality...

[@snikitty12345]

I'm too early, it's proof I am a time traveler.

[@Peacepov]

too early to what?

[@mananlalit]

So amazing!

[@ninahamalainen3438]

Wouldn't the macromolecules break down at some level of extraction? Some chemicals are water-soluble..

[@fatmatr3687]

I have a question. The human brain is 80% water. When polymers are injected in the body without adding extra water does not react with water? Control of polymers will be provided and how ?

[@iluan_]

Instead of injecting the polymer, inject the monomers and then inject something that drives a polymerization reaction.

[@imranq9241]

Since brain tissues are way bigger than light and electrons, why not make our observation frequencies higher with electron microscopy ? Still really impressive work

[@saxxyoboe]

Wow! Very interesting. 👍🏼

[@greatgamingchannale8257]

I have a theory that all the brains in this world are conected by invisible lines of neurons but the neurons that conect your brain to your future and past self are the most powerfull and when you have a dejavu moment you in the future actually expirienced something great from that exact moment and if you die i think your concusnes transfers to a different you.

[@alexgagnon52]

That was slick

[@fleXcope]

What would happen to the brain after it is physically enlarged? Does it need to be shrunken back to its original size? How?

[@WinningWithWini]

he didnt propose any ideas on how they would get the brain to contract back to its normal size and rid of the polymers. very interesting work they have lined up that has potential to shape the future of many brain properties but there has to be a way to undo the synthetic resizing and remove the foreign material or perhaps find a way to utilize

[@WinningWithWini]

what already exists in the brain for the expansion and contraction

[@dimzan235]

The brain is dead like yours. Stop watching videos when you lack basic functionality of logic

[@jeremywvarietyofviewpoints3104]

I wonder how this panned out?

[@animebuff86]

Fascinating. I'd even be willing to donate my brain if it meant discovery of a cure for epilepsy.

[@melyndageiger6349]

i cant be the first one to think of this, but if by chace i am and it works,,, do i get credit on the patent for it that people like me couldnt afford?.......

[@kennkong61]

This is only about 10% science and 90% speculation. I lost count of the "what ifs" after 20.

[@noanoxan]

You didn't see the demo, apparently. I know paying attention is difficult, but you need to at least try before making your own speculation.

[@aravindkm2012]

You do know most of modern chemistry is just speculation and they are mostly just theories.Many speculations turn out to be true later.Just be open minded enough to take in new ideas and maybe discard them if they don't interest you

[@bigman2540]

he put polymer in a brain and it worked they haven't done it full scale hows that speculation.

[@kennkong61]

banana delramma That's the 10%. Except for molecular tagging, everything else was speculative. There's nothing wrong with speculation; that's where new ideas come from. I just think scientists should be clear about what they hope to do versus what they can do. I think that this presentation was on the borderline with sensationalism. If I see this technique bear fruit in ten years, I'll be very happy to admit my opinion was overly pessimistic.

[@TheLivirus]

What are you talking about? He demonstrated that the method works, showing video footage of swelling brain tissue, and showed a LSFM image where the neuron structure could be discerned, produced using the method. What is this supposed 90% speculation made up of? The examples he provided of problems where the method may help provide answers?

[@agmessier]

But neurons themselves don't stretch to 100 times their size. Won't they break apart or separate at their synapses?

[@Holobrine]

Unfortunately I think neuroplasticity prevents us from ever having a generic map of the brain.

[@venkatatejanatireddi8018]

Good luck!

[@maattthhhh]

Dumb question: if you are tech savvy enough to put polymers in every crevice of a neural network, then shouldn't it be unnecessary to expand it?

[@BankruptGreek]

he explained that they were lucky since the polymer forms itself inside the brain

[@Tobihobbit]

Well, all of those biomolecules he is talking about are Proteins, which consist of amino acids. those have a common base structure with an additional functional sidechain, which determines the exact acid. Since a Protein usually has more than 100 amino acids of which there are only 20 naturally ocurring ones, the probability of specific sidechain appearing in all proteins is relatively high. That's why they can unselectively bind their handles to all those unknown proteins and thereby generate their polymer from that.

[@TheLivirus]

Polymers are produced by serial linking of tiny molecules called mers (hence poly-mer). I assume they first let the mers soak into the tissue before they trigger the linking processes.

[@alexloftus8892]

@@Tobihobbit I don't think you answered the question he asked.

[@mistyblue7346]

How you could expand something in a living being?

[@jacobjenuwine1085]

Camila Gastán He never said it had to be living

[@jeangilles38]

Sensational

[@KailashBP]

We need loonshots in biology! Safi Bahcall would agree

[@Linsforever]

We will also be able to invade into a person's dream and change his behavior in real life.

[@MariposaRedimida]

I'm still wondering if he expects this technique to be done on living or dead brains. Pretty sure you might wanna try that on dead brains about a million times before you do it on a living one, just brain explosions and what not, lol.

[@hyenaedits3460]

Yeah, I have no idea how it would work on living brains.

[@TheLivirus]

Calm down. If they will ever try this on a living brain, they will of course start with lab-animals.

[@alexloftus8892]

If they used CLARITY on living brains, those brains would die.

[@melaniefreeman6005]

It is done on fixed/dead tissue.

[@mindvolution]

Interesting science

[@zitraxfv]

[@MJ-om5go]

But I just have to wonder, how in the world would you safetley be able to inject polymer and water into the brain? :/

[@y123-u7e]

why there is no transolation to arabic

[@aravindkm2012]

This guy looks like Christopher Mintz

[@KarthikSubramanianKrishnan]

Blew my Mind! :D

[@h20no63]

Diaper = dark energy

[@mood9140]

من خلدلد لايك ؟ 😂❤️

[@yasirsumeyye3572]

Allahtan alkişı da çevirmiş çevrmen minnetarız

[@susu-bo3xg]

Yasir Sümeyye haha

[@kinsmed]

Seems like a narrow application. But if it leads to a scientific advance...

[@michaelrosche]

Narrow application?!?! This technology is revolutionary in understanding the brain, something we've had much trouble doing.

[@kinsmed]

What have we learned by this?

[@codemix129]

How to treat brain disorders for one

[@TheLivirus]

Narrow application? As an example, the neural networks in today's artificial intelligence algorithms are based on a lot of assumptions regarding how our brains work. If we learn more about neurons work in our brain, we can implement this knowledge into AI, inventing smarter algorithms capable of solving problems and performing tasks of higher complexity.

[@RedStefan]

But will the enlarged brain make me smarter?

[@TheLivirus]

I really hope so.

[@dimzan235]

Nope,nothing can save you from stupidity. No cure for you

[@ponder2006]

Watch out...Stranger Things are happening.

[@barcasimple]

And I just watched Lucy

[@JeffreyJorge-p1p]

What do scientist now about schizophrenia

[@TheDegbring]

Houston, we have a problem... A big problem

[@ogpeekhal]

Lisp killed it for me

[@astralmarmoset]

Baby diaper.

[@melyndageiger6349]

sounds like a way to partition off cancerous areas of the body to me. we try to shrink cancer...perhaps we should try this type of idea. make it 'bigger., then it could easily be separated from healthy tissues. the cells would have to pop rather than multiply.? maybe?

[@dimzan235]

Wrong. You don't understand anything from presentation.sorry

[@dkkempion8744]

In medicine there is a law, It's called _chemistry_.

[@notsiehI]

Big gulp

[@colinsilver1041]

No, thank you.

[@markm0000]

This guy doesn't move his eyes or eyebrows at all.

[@yasir1161]

THATTTS SOMMME BUUUUULSHIT

[@Ahmad-rn1rl]

عربي

[@aea9326]

We want to translate into Arabic

[@watchmansduty]

Leave us ALONE!!

[@malaykumarsaha3585]

You know Less the subject of neuroscience!

[@manavhirani]

First

[@daniildimitrov7117]

Common Ted this is a kindergarten talk! Give us something interesting, something new!

[@Ta3allamOnline]

Any updates?