Saying that he wanted the nextjob-creating discoveries to happen not in India or China, but the US, PresidentBarack Obama has unveiled a $100 million initiative to unlock the"enormous mystery" of the human brain.
"I don't want the next job-creating discoveries to happen in China orIndia or Germany. I want them to happen right here, in the United States ofAmerica," the president said Tuesday in an event in the East Room of theWhite House.
"And that's part of what this BRAIN Initiative is about," he saidreferring to the initiative, dubbed Brain Research through Advancing InnovativeNeurotechnologies.
"That's why we're pursuing other 'grand challenges' like making solarenergy as cheap as coal or making electric vehicles as affordable as the onesthat run on gas," Obama said.
"What if computers could respond to our thoughts? Or language barrierscould come tumbling down? Or if millions of Americans were suddenly finding newjobs in these fields -- jobs we haven't even dreamt up yet because we chose toinvest in this project? That is the future we are imagining. That is what weare hoping for," he said.
"There is this enormous mystery waiting to be unlocked," Obama said,"and the BRAIN Initiative will change that by giving scientists the toolsthey need to get a dynamic picture of the brain in action and better understandhow we think and how we learn and how we remember. And that knowledge could be-- will be -- transformative."
BRAIN "aims to help researchers find new ways to treat, cure, and evenprevent brain disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, and traumaticbrain injury", the White House said in a release.
The money to study the brain would support research by the National Institutesof Health, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency and the NationalScience Foundation. The research would involve both federal research agenciesand private partners.
A major goal is to reveal "how individual brain cells and complex neuralcircuits interact at the speed of thought", the White House said.
"Our ultimate objective is a deep understanding of the human brain and itsunderstanding," said DARPA director Arati Prabhakar in a conference callwith reporters.