IBM will be heading up a collaborative project with five US universities, which will aim to produce electronic systems that mimic the function and behaviour of a brain. The project has received funding from the US defence agency and will bring together experts from the fields of computing, neurobiology, material science and psychology. Only recently has technology been available which can produce structures which match the densities of synapses and neurons found in real brains and while the project has lofty aims, any resulting techology could have far reaching applications.