Fusion Energy, the energy that is released by fusing light nuclei, holds the promise of providing mankind with a safe and almost inexhaustible source of energy. In this talk I will present the recent achievements in the field of fusion energy research and will sketch the road that remains to be travelled in order to realize our dream of a safe and environmentally friendly fusion reactor.

Complexity science and systems medicine approaches are combined to study health and nutrition. We have developed multi-scale dynamic system models of human metabolism. Mathematical models of the metabolic response to food intake have been used to create personalized computer models for about 5,500 people. Scientific machine learning is used to update these “virtual twin” models according to changes in their human counterparts. This allows us to make predictions about the effects of diet intervention, bariatric surgery, or weight loss medication.

The brain’s computing principles (neurons connected by synapses) and information carriers (ions in water) both differ fundamentally from those of conventional computers. Remarkably, this allows the brain to be orders of magnitude more energy efficient than ordinary computing devices. This disparity is now drawing major interest due to the unsustainable rapid increase in energy consumption by computers, driven predominantly by AI. Recent successes were achieved in constructing neuromorphic (brain-inspired) circuits, i.e. devices that talk like the brain. However, the focus so far has almost exclusively been on solid-state systems with a single information carrier (typically electrons or holes), a stark contrast with the rich aqueous electrolytes harnessed by the brain. A recent sudden rise in interest is shown in neuromorphic systems that also take inspiration from the brain’s aqueous medium. In this talk we will first delve into the exciting field of neuromorphic computing and then zoom in on the newly emerging direction of fluidic ionic neuromorphic computing, which aims to create devices that proverbially both walk and talk like the brain.