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Can a tiny slice of mouse brain help us understand the complex human mind?

For all the advances in artificial intelligence and neuroscience over the past century, the human brain is still the most intricate and enigmatic machinery on Earth. Scientists are still slowly untangling the brains’s web of profoundly complex connections, seeking the yet elusive knowledge of how it all actually works. This visualisation reconstructs a dustmite-sized slice of a mouse cortex that has been used in recent research. While the mapping reveals much about brain mechanics, it also illustrates the immense challenges scientists face when attempting to map even a minuscule amount of brain material.

Video by Nature

8 September 2015
Photo of a humpback whale underwater, showing its head and eye against a deep blue background.

videoBiology

What would it mean if we were able to ‘speak’ with whales?

65 minutes

Microscopic images of cells showing vibrant colours in various patterns against a black background.

videoBiology

For 3 billion years, life was unicellular. Why did it start to collaborate?

4 minutes

Close-up digital illustration of a lysosome showing detailed proteins in various colours on its surface.

videoBiology

Dive deep into an egg cell to see how ageing reboots when a new life begins

2 minutes

3D colour spectrum graph with X, Y, Z axes and a colourful curved surface on a black background, digital rendering.

videoMathematics

After centuries of trying, we’ve yet to arrive at a perfect way to map colour

20 minutes

Photo of a wicker basket with two kittens and a squirrel inside against a decorative blue and white tiled wall.

videoAnimals and humans

One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough

14 minutes

Microscopic image showing a close-up view of a butterfly’s proboscis covered with vibrant pink and orange structures.

videoBiology

Butterflies become unrecognisable landscapes when viewed under electron microscopes

4 minutes

Microscope photo of a flea’s head showing detailed orange and black features against a black background.

videoBiology

‘Save the parasites’ may not be a popular rallying cry – but it could be a vital one

11 minutes

Black and white close-up photo of a lizard with its tongue extended, about to catch a worm. The background is dark and blurred.

videoEvolution

The many ways a lizard tongue sticks, grasps, pinches and plops – in slo-mo

6 minutes

Black and white photograph of a cloudy sky with swirling lines resembling bird flight patterns.

videoBiology

Starlings swoosh like brushstrokes across the sky in this dazzling short

3 minutes