News

June 16, 2021

Can a $110 Million Helmet Unlock the Secrets of the Mind?

Bryan Johnson, who made a fortune in online payment processing, has spent a lot of it building hardware meant to radically expand science’s understanding of the brain’s aging and effects on the body.

May 24, 2021

Lex Fridman Podcast #186 | Bryan Johnson: Kernel Brain-Computer Interfaces

“Lex, what goes through a potato’s brain?” “What kind of nuts do academics eat?” Jokes our CEO told Lex Fridman while wearing Kernel Flow...

May 1, 2021

One meal, 23 hr fast, 100% nutrition.

"In the past, I’ve written about A Plan for Humanity, Building a Global Biological Immune System, and Zeroth-Principle Thinking. But let’s be honest, who has time to read this gibberish?"

April 16, 2021

Flow 50 Sneak Peek - Ep. 2

The final pieces have arrived! Flow assembly begins. The chips you see in this video will undergo our full test suite before they are packaged up and built into the modules that our Flow 50 partners will receive.

April 1, 2021

Shedding Light on the Human Brain

The freedom of functional near-infrared spectroscopy opens a window into brain activity outside the confines of an MRI machine.

March 9, 2021

Zeroth-Principles Thinking

"How does one come up with a truly original idea? One that reshapes society for centuries. Learning about the discovery of zero changed my orientation with transformational thinking..."

March 2, 2021

Announcing Kernel Flux: the World’s Most Powerful Neural Interface

We are pleased to announce that the first Kernel Flux system will be delivered to the world, and our first customer, this summer. But first...

February 23, 2021

Flow 50 Sneak Peek - Ep. 1

We recently announced our initial research and commercial partnerships for Kernel Flow. Here is a sneak peek of Kernel Flow’s in-house assembly.

February 18, 2021

Autonomous Self

"In the previous two newsletters, I outlined the recent lifestyle changes I’ve made to achieve optimal health. A process which required firing many unreliable versions of myself..."

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May 1, 2021

One meal, 23 hr fast, 100% nutrition.

"In the past, I’ve written about A Plan for Humanity, Building a Global Biological Immune System, and Zeroth-Principle Thinking. But let’s be honest, who has time to read this gibberish?"

March 9, 2021

Zeroth-Principles Thinking

"How does one come up with a truly original idea? One that reshapes society for centuries. Learning about the discovery of zero changed my orientation with transformational thinking..."

March 2, 2021

Announcing Kernel Flux: the World’s Most Powerful Neural Interface

We are pleased to announce that the first Kernel Flux system will be delivered to the world, and our first customer, this summer. But first...

February 18, 2021

Autonomous Self

"In the previous two newsletters, I outlined the recent lifestyle changes I’ve made to achieve optimal health. A process which required firing many unreliable versions of myself..."

February 10, 2021

My Goal Alignment Problem

"There are many versions of you constantly competing for dominance in achieving their own goals. Frequently opposing one another. The texture of their goals varies..."

February 4, 2021

Sleep and Impulse Control

"It’s 7 pm. A freshly baked sugar cookie stares back at me. The doughy middle revealing itself in seductive allure. The sugar formed in what looks like a smile, taunting me..."

January 26, 2021

Kernel on Psychedelics

Founder and CEO, Bryan Johnson, gives additional context on the significance of Kernel's recently-announced partnership with Cybin.

January 19, 2021

A Project Warp Speed for Our Minds

This week at Kernel, we’ve been circulating an executive summary on the cognitive effects of Covid-19, some suspected mechanisms, and exploring what we can do about it.

January 11, 2021

Kernel and Cybin partner to chart new course in Psychiatry

Kernel and Cybin Partner, Charting New Course in Psychiatry with Kernel Flow's Breakthrough Neuroimaging for Use in Psychedelic Pharmaceutical Therapies

December 2, 2020

Flow 50 Phase 1 Partners

We recently announced the availability of our first 50 Kernel Flow devices, and the response and enthusiasm far exceeded our expectations. Since, we have committed 23 Flow systems to elite academic and industry groups whose research ideas are diverse, ambitious, and extraordinarily exciting.

November 19, 2020

Kernel Flow meets Virtual Reality

This week we ran our first sessions combining Kernel Flow and Virtual Reality (VR). The pairing of Kernel Flow—the world’s first full-head coverage TD-fNIRS system—and VR is of particular interest to us as we build a scalable software and hardware ecosystem for both organizations and individuals.

October 27, 2020

Kernel Flow 50 Live Stream Summary (tl;dw)

We recently announced that the first fifty Kernel Flow systems will become available for select partners starting in January 2021 (application). Here is the Flow 50 offering:

July 9, 2020

Kernel Raises $53M from General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Eldridge, Manta Ray, Tiny Blue Dot

First outside investment to accelerate on-demand access to world-leading, non-invasive brain recording technology

May 5, 2020

Kernel Sound ID decodes your brain activity and within seconds identifies what speech or song you are hearing.

At Kernel, our primary goal is to enable improved and accelerated insights into the human brain. The 20th century was the century of physics.

March 14, 2020

Covid-19 pandemic: An exercise of human adaptability

Covid-19 is like a surprise school exam, that your teacher told you would be coming. It was in the syllabus, the teacher reminded the class several times, and yet when it arrives, it’s abrupt chaos! It is tough being human.

February 26, 2019

The Future You That You Least Suspect

The other night my teenage boys asked me what was on my mind (likely looking for material to make fun of me. Just kidding, they’re thoughtful kids).

December 2, 2018

Rebooting the Brain

The single greatest thing we can do as species is to work on our adaptability, our ability to evolve and adapt to this change.

April 19, 2018

Changing Our Minds One Attebyte At a Time

Imagine a future where we can quantify, and understand, all of our brain’s activity.

October 13, 2016

The combination of human and artificial intelligence will define humanity’s future

Through the past few decades of summer blockbuster movies and Silicon Valley products, artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly familiar and sexy, and imbued with a perversely dystopian allure.

June 16, 2021

Can a $110 Million Helmet Unlock the Secrets of the Mind?

April 1, 2021

Shedding Light on the Human Brain

The freedom of functional near-infrared spectroscopy opens a window into brain activity outside the confines of an MRI machine.

January 13, 2021

The Emerging Revival of Psychedelics in Neuroscience

Cami Russo writes about Kernel and other pioneers of using novel psychedelic drugs as treatment for mental health.

January 7, 2021

10 Exciting Engineering Milestones to Look for in 2021

IEEE Spectrum predicts advances in Mars missions, wearable brain scanners, and quantum communications

July 9, 2020

Kernel raises $53 million for its non-invasive ‘Neuroscience as a Service’ technology

LA-based bio science startup Kernel has raised $53 million from investors, including General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Eldridge, Manta Ray Ventures, Tiny Blue Dot and more.

June 21, 2020

Meet 10 Companies Working On Reading Your Thoughts (And Even Those Of Your Pets)

Cathy Hackl covers 10 leaders working in brain-machine interfaces (BMI) and brain-computer interfaces (BCI) devices

May 5, 2020

A Neuroscience Startup Uses Helmets to Measure Brain Activity

Backed by $54 million, Kernel aims to turn an esoteric science into big business.

May 2, 2019

Brain-Machine Interfaces Could Give Us All Superpowers

The new documentary I Am Human chronicles how neurotechnology could restore sight, retrain the body, and treat diseases—then make us all more than human.

January 28, 2019

21 Neurotech Startups To Watch: Brain-Machine Interfaces, Implantables, And Neuroprosthetics

These startups have seen investment from NEA, Andreessen Horowitz, and DARPA, among many others.

January 4, 2018

How brains and machines can be made to work together

Brain-computer interfaces sound like the stuff of science fiction. Andrew Palmer sorts the reality from the hype

December 13, 2017

Do Humans Need an Upgrade Too?

As AI and robots rise up, do humans need an upgrade too?

November 16, 2017

Inside the Race to Hack the Human Brain

Bryan Johnson's insanely ambitious dream to create a neuroprosthesis would allow humans to “coevolve” with AI and even develop telepathy.

February 22, 2017

Kernel is trying to hack the human brain, but neuroscience still has a long way to go

The future of computing may be inside our skulls

August 15, 2016

Putting a Computer in Your Brain is No Longer Science Fiction

Like many in Silicon Valley, technology entrepreneur Bryan Johnson sees a future in which intelligent machines can do things like drive cars on their own and anticipate our needs before we ask.

May 24, 2021