Episode description

Why is it that computers are so much faster than brains at some tasks?

Or could human brains one day be used to better effect? Listener Praveen from India was wondering how it can be that supercomputers are so very powerful compared to the human minds that created them. So CrowdScience, with the help of a small voice-activated guest presenter, is off to discover how the first computers remembered what they were told, how a million processors are being connected together to mimic a small percentage of a human brain, and how the mind-boggling speeds of modern computing is enabling the current leaps in artificial intelligence.

Producer: Alex Mansfield Presenter: Marnie Chesterton

Speakers: Sarah Baines, David Lewis - Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester James Sumner, Steve Furber - University of Manchester Aldo Faisal - Imperial College, London.

(Photo: 3D transparent human head and brain image. Credit: Getty images)