The BRAIN Initiative will accelerate the development and application of new technologies that will enable researchers to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought.

FORBES: President Obama Pledges $100 Million To The Human BRAIN Initiative

Dr Lin is already testing a waveguide designed to steer light with a wavelength of 1.5 microns, and he is also working on three-dimensional waveguides made of silicon, which will provide almost total control over the path the light takes, and make really complex optical circuits possible.

ECONOMIST: New-age crystals

Last year Dr Benenson's team developed one of the most complex cell-based molecular circuits created so far, though it is still much simpler than systems built in test tubes.

ECONOMIST: DNA computing