Ed Boyden at TEDSummit 2016

Baby diapers inspired this new way to study the brain


Ed Boyden at TEDSummit 2016

Ed Boyden, associate professor and neuroscientist at MIT. He is a faculty member in the MIT Media Lab and an associate member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. © Bryce Vickmark. All rights reserved. www.vickmark.com 617.448.6758

TEDSummit June 2016

Neuroengineer Ed Boyden wants to know how the tiny biomolecules in our brains generate emotions, thoughts and feelings — and he wants to find the molecular changes that lead to disorders like epilepsy and Alzheimer’s. Rather than magnify these invisible structures with a microscope, he wondered: What if we physically enlarge them and make them easier to see? Learn how the same polymers used to make baby diapers swell could be a key to better understanding our brains.