Machines Like Us is an artificial intelligence blog that I read. I found this story there — mimicking the brain, in silicon by Anne Trafton. Here is an excerpt: With about 400 transistors, the silicon chip can simulate the activity of a single brain synapse — a connection between two neurons that allows information to flow from one to the other. The researchers anticipate this chip will help neuroscientists learn much more about how the brain works, and could also be used in neural prosthetic devices such as artificial retinas, says Chi-Sang Poon, a principal research scientist in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Read more »