A neurosurgeon and an astrophysicist entered a space.
The architecture of the visible universe, according to a group of Italian
scientists, are astonishingly comparable to the neural networks of the human
brain. While this may seem like the beginning of a terrible joke, it is a
really galactic brain perspective.
Franco Vazza, an astronomer at the University of Bologna, and Alberto
Feletti, a neurosurgeon at the University of Verona, recently found
surprising parallels between the intricate network of neurons in the human
brain and the cosmic network of galaxies. Their findings were published in
the journal Frontiers in Physics. The scientists found that the intricacy
and self-organization of the human brain and the structure of the cosmic web
are comparable despite being approximately 27 orders of magnitude apart in
scale.
The observable universe is made up of at least 100 billion galaxies that
are loosely connected to form a web, whereas the brain is thought to have 69
billion neurons. Only around 30% of the universe's overall mass and the
brain's total mass are made up of real galaxies and neurons, respectively.
Additionally, galaxies and neurons both organize themselves on long
filaments or strings like beads.
Dark energy makes up the remaining 70% of the mass in galaxies. The pair
cited water as the human brain's counterpart.
Vazza stated in a statement on the research that "we determined the
spectral density of both systems." This method is frequently used in
cosmology to examine the geographic distribution of galaxies.
He continued, "Our analysis revealed that the distribution of the
fluctuation within the cerebellum neuronal network on a scale from 1
micrometer to 0.1 millimeter follows the same progression of the
distribution of matter in the cosmic web," but obviously on a larger scale
that goes from 5 million to 500 million light-years.
There was an uncanny similarity in the clustering and the amount of
connections coming from each node.
In the statement, Feletti added that "structural factors have once again
discovered unanticipated agreement levels." Despite the evident and stark
contrast between the physical forces governing galaxies and neurons, it is
likely that the connection within the two networks evolves in accordance
with comparable fundamental principles.
In order to help researchers better grasp how these structures have changed
throughout time, the team is hopeful that their early findings may inspire
new analysis methods in both cosmology and neurosurgery.
