Human Connectome Project maps brain's circuitry, produces super trippy graphics
![](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/CV23K1H7Kto48bKl0vtWAQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTcyMA--/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/IsR0pZCsC8hOZn7AXUHg1w--~B/aD0zOTQ7dz01MjU7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/12/human-connectome-projectmap.jpg)
A team of researchers at the Human Connectome Project (HCP) have been carving up mice brains like Christmas hams to find out how we store memories, personality traits, and skills -- the slices they're making, though, are 29.4 nanometers thick. The end goal is to run these tiny slices under a microscope, create detailed images of the brain, and then stitch them back together, eventually creating a complete map of the mind, or connectome. The team, comprised of scientists at Harvard, UCLA, University of Minnesota, and Washington University, is still a long way from cutting up a human brain, partially due to storage limitations -- a picture of a one-millimeter cube of mouse brain uses about a petabyte of memory. A human brain would require millions of petabytes, and an indefinite number of years, causing speculation that the payoff isn't worth the effort -- although, we're convinced the HCP wallpaper possibilities are totally worth it.