HardwareScanning 1 cubic millimetre of brain tissue resulted in 1,400,000 GB of data, or about the same space as your dad’s holiday photo collectionWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

HardwareScanning 1 cubic millimetre of brain tissue resulted in 1,400,000 GB of data, or about the same space as your dad’s holiday photo collectionWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Yuichiro Chino via Getty Images)

A creative illustration of a binary human brain and genomic DNA on a dark blue particle background

For reference, at a cost of $0.03 per GB, a data center built to store such a vast amount of information would come in at around $48 billion in storage costs alone, and that’s before you take into account the cost of the rest of the facility you’d need to house and operate it. The more you know, ey?

One neuron in particular was found with over 5,000 connection points to other neurons, while some axons—signal-carrying nerve fibres—were revealed to have become tightly coiled together, for reasons that still remain unclear.

Harvard professor Jeff Lichtman said, when speaking toThe Guardian: “We found many things in this dataset that are not in the textbooks. We don’t understand those things, but I can tell you they suggest there’s a chasm between what we already know and what we need to know.”

Or as Donald H. Rumsfeld oncefamously said, “We also know there are known unknowns…but there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” Anyway, while the study has certainly revealed some new mysteries surrounding the human brain that are yet to be understood, the sheer size of the dataset created here is remarkable in and of itself.

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It also strikes that, in a world where the term “AI” appears to bebecoming increasingly meaningless, this may be a perfect example of how the vast data-crunching capabilities of machine learning algorithms and powerful AI-processing hardware can be put to good use, unlocking the secrets of our own, incredibly powerful biological processing hardware.

Just the thought of it gives me a headache. Please don’t sample mine, for future reference. I’m pretty sure if you looked at slides of my humble wetware unit, you’d get less of an impression of the density of the human brain and more of a collection of flipbook images depicting a dog riding in circles on a unicycle.

Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.

Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.

Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.

Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.

Best CPU for gamingBest gaming motherboardBest graphics cardBest SSD for gaming

Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.

Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.

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A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

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