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Your Beautiful Brain YOUR BEAUTIFUL BRAIN GETTY IMAGES GETTY BY BILL RETHERFORD 4.16_Neuroscience_FINAL.indd 12 11/14/16 10:12 AM YOUR BEAUTIFUL BRAIN DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONTIERS OF NEUROSCIENCE GETTY IMAGES GETTY BY BILL RETHERFORD COLUMBIA WINTER 2016 13 4.16_Neuroscience_FINAL.indd 13 11/14/16 10:13 AM eer into the human Each neuron typically links to thousands more, ’28LAW, ’83HON, was an attorney, real-estate skull, probe the brain’s perhaps up to fifteen thousand more, drawing on developer, and billionaire; he graduated from tofu-like texture, and the measliest of electrical currents (0.07 volts — an Columbia Law School just before the Great there, in that microscopic AA battery carries twenty times as much). Those Depression began. Over the next seventy-one terrain, the neurons exist, currents, moving neuron to neuron, sprint through years, he would give hundreds of millions of nearly infinitesimal. Fifty of them would fit a phalanx of connectors, called synapses, at speeds dollars to charitable causes. He died in 1999, on the period at the end of this sentence. up to almost three hundred miles per hour. Signals age ninety-three, one of New York City’s most Most form before birth and stay with us until from the brain’s motor cortex, for example, rush powerful figures. Even after death he endures: death, although some, due to disease or disuse, through the central nervous system to the neuronal the name on the building is the Jerome L. eventually shrink, slow down, or succumb. The networks in the legs. Those electrical pokes Greene Science Center. brains of frogs hold sixteen million neuronal regulate balance, direction, stride, and speed, along The building’s approximately eight hundred cells; fox terriers, one hundred sixty million. with dozens of other things; such is the abridged tenants will include scientists, principal PYet the human brain, with its eighty-six billion neurological backstory to taking a single step. investigators, lab managers, postdocs, graduate neurons, still doesn’t house the most. The By the end of adolescence, the neurons will have students, and sta from Columbia’s Mortimer B. African elephant has three times as many, and engineered five hundred trillion connections. Take Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, itself blue whales likely have billions more, though no those connections — from just one brain, mind you relatively new. The institute was established in one is certain. — string them along Interstate 95 somehow, and December 2012 with a $200 million gift from Individual neurons are not self-aware. They do they would stretch from Columbia University to Zuckerman ’14HON, owner of the New York not know what they are, where they are, or who Columbia, South Carolina. Daily News and chairman of U.S. News & World you are. They do not think. Rather, they permit us Neurons are colloquially called the brain’s Report. Says Thomas M. Jessell, one of the to think. Like the frenzy within a pinball machine, “basic building blocks.” And we do know the Zuckerman Institute’s three codirectors and a basics about how individual neurons work. But Columbia professor of biochemistry, molecular fathoming how trillions of them talk across biophysics, and neuroscience: “Our simple task seventy-eight compartments of brain topography now is to create the best institute for neural is a conundrum. And repairing flawed networks science in the US, and, arguably, in the world.” to conclusively cure brain disorders, like autism The move into the Greene Science Center or Alzheimer’s, remains an enigma — looming, kickstarts that assignment. “Really great daunting, slow to undrape itself. “I don’t want science is going to come from it,” says Shadlen, to make it sound like we know nothing,” says a Zuckerman Institute principal investigator. A Michael Shadlen, a professor of neuroscience at the place for “the collision of ideas,” as Jessell likes Columbia University Herbert and Florence Irving to say. Right now, the institute’s scientists are Medical Center (CUMC). “But there are basic, largely disconnected, geographically speaking; basic phenomena that we know nothing about. they’re spread across six buildings throughout Everything we discover provokes deeper questions.” the Morningside Heights and medical center Wrapping one’s head around the human mind campuses. “We’ve really been constrained, is very hard. Figuring yourself out always is. “The hindered, slowed down by all these labs that have greatest scientific challenge we are now facing,” similar interests, scattered all over,” says Randy says Charles Zuker, professor of biochemistry, Bruno, another Zuckerman Institute investigator. molecular biophysics, and neuroscience at CUMC, Just as neurons need to commingle, apparently “is to understand the workings of the brain.” so do scientists. The stereotype of a lone researcher experiencing a eureka moment in a The glass building awaits in West Harlem, at secluded little lab survives only as a science-fiction the intersection of Broadway and 129th Street, trope. In real life, discovery hardly ever happens thirteen blocks north of the Morningside Heights that way. “These are complex problems, and we campus gates. Overshadowing a space previously have not broken them,” says Richard Axel ’67CC, Thomas M. Jessell the neurons fling directives back and forth, occupied by long-abandoned warehouses, it was a Zuckerman Institute codirector and Columbia likes to call the ceaselessly communicating and connecting with the first structure erected on the school’s new professor of biochemistry, molecular biophysics, Jerome L. Greene Science Center other nerve cells. These neuronal networks control seventeen-acre Manhattanville campus. A $250 pathology, and neuroscience. “The ability to a place for “the every thought, feeling, sensation, and movement. million gift helped make it happen — from the understand will require looking at a problem collision of ideas.” They are the conduits that lead to consciousness; Renzo Piano ’14HON design to the construction of through a multiplicity of eyes.” The relocation to they make sense of our senses. Only because of the building’s more than fifty laboratories. the Greene Science Center collects researchers them do our brains and bodies work. Minus the Dawn M. Greene ’08HON, the philanthropist, JILL L from more than twenty disciplines throughout E networks, our minds would be slush, gibberish. bestowed the gift in 2006. Her husband of VINE Columbia: neuroscientists, data scientists, Phantasms would replace perceptions. nineteen years, Jerome L. Greene ’26CC, molecular biologists, stem-cell biologists, electrical 14 COLUMBIA WINTER 2016 4.16_Neuroscience_FINAL.indd 14 11/14/16 10:13 AM Each neuron typically links to thousands more, ’28LAW, ’83HON, was an attorney, real-estate engineers, biomedical engineers, psychologists, perhaps up to fifteen thousand more, drawing on developer, and billionaire; he graduated from mathematicians, physicists, theorists, and the measliest of electrical currents (0.07 volts — an Columbia Law School just before the Great model builders. “If you only talk to people who AA battery carries twenty times as much). Those Depression began. Over the next seventy-one work on the exact same thing you work on, you currents, moving neuron to neuron, sprint through years, he would give hundreds of millions of probably don’t generate as many new ideas a phalanx of connectors, called synapses, at speeds dollars to charitable causes. He died in 1999, as you could,” says Bruno. “Getting together up to almost three hundred miles per hour. Signals age ninety-three, one of New York City’s most from the brain’s motor cortex, for example, rush powerful figures. Even after death he endures: through the central nervous system to the neuronal the name on the building is the Jerome L. The stereotype of a lone researcher networks in the legs. Those electrical pokes Greene Science Center. experiencing a eureka moment in a regulate balance, direction, stride, and speed, along The building’s approximately eight hundred secluded little lab survives only as a with dozens of other things; such is the abridged tenants will include scientists, principal neurological backstory to taking a single step. investigators, lab managers, postdocs, graduate science-fiction trope. By the end of adolescence, the neurons will have students, and sta from Columbia’s Mortimer B. engineered five hundred trillion connections. Take Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, itself those connections — from just one brain, mind you relatively new. The institute was established in — string them along Interstate 95 somehow, and December 2012 with a $200 million gift from people with dierent expertise, very dierent they would stretch from Columbia University to Zuckerman ’14HON, owner of the New York research programs, but a common purpose of Columbia, South Carolina. Daily News and chairman of U.S. News & World understanding the mind — yeah, that’s fabulous.” Neurons are colloquially called the brain’s Report. Says Thomas M. Jessell, one of the Scientists don’t necessarily put a premium “basic building blocks.” And we do know the Zuckerman Institute’s three codirectors and a on luck, but they do subscribe to serendipity basics about how individual neurons work. But Columbia professor of biochemistry, molecular — of which proximity is a catalyst. “Science is a fathoming how trillions of them talk across biophysics, and neuroscience: “Our simple task completely social interaction,” says Eric Kandel, seventy-eight compartments of brain topography now is to create the best institute for neural the third Zuckerman Institute codirector, is a conundrum. And repairing flawed networks science in the US, and, arguably, in the world.” and a professor of neuroscience, psychiatry, to conclusively cure brain disorders, like autism The move into the Greene Science Center biochemistry, and biophysics at CUMC. “I met or Alzheimer’s, remains an enigma — looming, kickstarts that assignment. “Really great Richard Axel in the late seventies. He became daunting, slow to undrape itself. “I don’t want science is going to come from it,” says Shadlen, interested in the brain and nervous system.
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