Neuroscientists at MIT and Max Planck are developing new imaging techniques and computer algorithms to automate the process of creating neural maps, an emerging field dubbed connectomics, reports Technology Review. At the annual Society for Neurosciences meeting, they presented work that showed a 3D reconstruction of part of the rabbit retina. To make a complete trace of the human brain, including biochemical and physiological properties of various cells, they'll have to speed up the process significantly. "I'm confident in the end that we will be able to do it," neuroscientist Winfried Denk of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research says. “But I don't know how long it will take us — if we're lucky, maybe a year or so."
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