President Barack Obama is calling for an investment of $100 million for the BRAIN Initiative.
(Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Touting the economic as well as scientific benefits of investing in basic research, President Obama today unveiled a new initiative to study the human brain that he called "the next great American project."
"Ideas are what power our economy," Obama said at an event in the East Room of the White House. "We've been a nation of dreamers and risk takers. We do innovation better than anybody else, and that makes our economy stronger."
In his proposed 2014 budget, Obama will call for investing $100 million to launch the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative -- a project to speed up the development and application of technologies that will help researchers create dynamic brain imaging, to learn how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact.
"As humans we can identify galaxies light-years away, we can study particles smaller than an atom, but we still haven't unlocked the mystery of the three pounds of matter sitting between our ears," Obama said.
The research could lead to new ways to treat brain disorders like Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, or traumatic brain in... [Read more]
No comments:
Post a Comment