COULD SCIENTISTS UPLOAD AN ANIMAL BRAIN TO A COMPUTER?

The answer to this depends on what you mean by 'upload' and 'brain'.

- DARCIE WALSH, PRESTON

If you're a little free and easy on both, then it's been done already.

Caenorhabditis elegans is a tiny little worm that lives in soil and rotting vegetation. It's a multicellular eukaryotic organism, so it technically counts as an animal. This little worm never grows to more than 1mm (0.03in) long and is one of the best-known creatures on the planet.

We have sequenced its genome and mapped the development of every one of its 2,000 or so cells - including its 300 neurons. There's little variation in the worm, and what variation there is has been mapped as well. So, scientists have been able to model the entirety of its brain in a computer - which not only shows the same reflexive behaviours as the real thing, it can even be trained to do a couple of new tricks too, such as balancing a virtual pole (yes, really).

But if we become a little pickier about our definitions, then this doesn't quite cut it. The simulated