The human brain is the most complex living structure in the known universe. It has a capacity to store more information than any current supercomputer and has enabled us to create a cultural evolution that started a new geological epoch – the Anthropocene. The brain shapes our thoughts, beliefs, hopes, dreams, and imaginations. Thus, it is our brain that makes us human. 

Neuroscience is now the globally leading science and brain researchers are inspired to try to decipher the brain’s command of all its diverse functions. The last twenty years have witnessed enormous progress that allows tackling questions that were far beyond reach only a short while ago. But despite this breath-taking progress, the journey to truly understand our own brain is still at its beginning. More than 1,000 disorders of the brain and nervous system result in more hospitalisations than any other disease group, including heart disease and cancer. Still, neuroscience is unable to come up with causal cures for the vast majority of these diseases. What is needed is concerted action where scientists studying structure are in close cooperation with those analysing function. Similarly, neuroscientists have to go back and forth between bench and bedside to reciprocally transfer insights from basic to clinical neurosciences.

Neuroscience cannot be just a national endeavour, but depends on the free exchange of ideas across national borders. The “2nd German-Turkish Science Dialogue” thus represents a timely joint initiative of the German National Academy Leopoldina and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to congregate scientists from Germany and Turkey. These researchers study the complexity of brain functions and thereby unveil the beauty of an organ that makes us who we are.

The German-Turkish Science Dialogue

On the occasion of the German-Turkish Year of Science, the Leopoldina and the Humboldt Foundation have started a joint format: the “German-Turkish Science Dialogue”. The framework fosters the ambition of scientists tackling the the systemic challenges of future developments: in societies, spaces and economies, in environment and health, as well as in the research-driven advancement of science and the innovation-based development of new technologies.

Picture: © E. Genc · Ruhr-Universität Bochum