What if half the brain's cells are doing something essential that neuroscience has barely begun to investigate? Elena Galea makes the case that astrocytes, long dismissed as passive glue, are active computational elements that tile the brain in a precise three-dimensional matrix, modulate neural circuits, control blood flow, and may hold the key to understanding memory and higher brain function. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Elena Galea joins Paul Verschure and Tony Prescott to explain why the old category of "glia" should be abandoned. Astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, microglia, and NG2 cells are molecularly and functionally distinct , lumping them together has obscured decades of potential discovery. Galea describes how modern labeling techniques reveal astrocytes not as star-shaped cells with long processe ...