Mouse brain simulated on computer

US researchers have simulated half a virtual mouse brain on a supercomputer. The scientists ran a “cortical simulator” that was as big and as complex as half of a mouse brain on the BlueGene L supercomputer.

Links:

BBC-News.

Original article.

The Early Signs of the Long Tomorrow.

Goodman Brain Computatuon Lab.

Musicians unlock mystery melody in chapel

Thomas Mitchell, a 75-year-old musician and ex-Royal Air Force code breaker, and his son, composer and pianist Stuart, recently unlocked a 600 year old mystery that had been encoded into the walls of the Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland – the chapel where the last part of Dan Brown’s 2003 novel “The Da Vinci Code” is set.

The 213 boxes contain a selection of patterns that are now interpreted as a musical score, by studying them as so called Chladni Patterns or Cymatics.

Matching these patterns with musical notes corresponding to the same frequencies produced a tune which is called the Rosslyn Motet. Now the recovered melody was paired with traditional lyrics (translated into Latin) and recorded.
You can hear the result in this video (also linked from the musicians’ website).

Click here for the original Reuters article and here for a Sunday Mail article.