This week, Soldier-on-Pas retirement or give it all up to travel the world.

If I were stuck at home, I would be more on my own, weeding my leaks.

A microchip that learns like the human brain.

We don't really know what's happening inside and eventually the system kind of magically converges.

Plus, a new species found in a deep sea vent shakes the branches of the tree of life.

This is the nature podcast for May 7th, 2015.

I'm Kerry Smith.

And I'm Adam Levy.

The computer in your laptop or phone works completely differently to the computer in your head.

There are over 80 billion neurons in the human brain, and each neuron is connected to thousands of others by synapses.

This intricate network can store and process information.

For computers, on the other hand, information is normally stored and processed in different places, which can really slow things down.

But why not build a computer modelled on the human brain?

That's exactly what researchers are starting to do, making use of a device called a memorista, which works a lot like an artificial synapse.

Now, a team led by Dmiti Stuchov of University of California, Santa Barbara,

who have shown that such a computer can recognise a three-by-three pixel pattern.

Wait, wait, wait, Adam, nine pixels? Well, I for one welcome our new robot overlords.

Yes, well, the chip isn't programmed to recognise these patterns. It has to learn by itself.

Plus, it's really early days for this type of technology.

The hope is that the chip could easily be scaled up.

But what use would a brain-like chip have in the first place?

I called Dmitzsche Strukov, and he gave me a couple of examples.

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