Nanotech breakthrough - Nerve cells can grow on silicon
 

This seemed pretty crazy to me. What do you think?


http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/TechNews...353584-cp.html


CALGARY (CP) -- Researchers at the University of Calgary have found that nerve cells grown on a microchip can learn and memorize information which can be communicated to the brain.

"We discovered that when we used the chip to stimulate the neurons, their synaptic strength was enhanced," said Naweed Syed, a neurobiologist at the University of Calgary's faculty of medicine.

The nerve cells also exhibited memory traces that were successfully read by the chip, said Syed, co-author of the landmark study published in February's edition of Physical Review Letters, an international journal.

The research was done in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich, Germany.

The team cultured nerve cells from a snail and placed them on a specially designed silicon chip. Using a microcapacitor on the chip, scientists stimulated one nerve cell to communicate with a second cell which transmitted that signal to multiple cells within the network.

A transistor located on the chip then recorded that conversation between cells.

Syed said the discovery is groundbreaking.

"We've made a giant leap in answering several fundamental questions of biology and neuro-electronics that will pave the way for us to harness the power of nanotechnology," he said.

The findings could help in the design of devices that combine electronic components and brain cells. That includes controlling artificial limbs or restoring sight for the visually impaired.

Future research will focus on interfacing silicon chips with the human brain to control artificial limbs and develop "thinking" computers.

they've got some fucking nerve

Does this mean I can have a new arm now?

I just got chills reading that.

rise of the NANO :(

Damn, real life Matrix.

If they need a guinnea pig for cyborg research, I'M THE MAN FOR THE JOB! Hook me up with some Nano-gadgets and let me fight crime (or become a super villian, which would probably be the case). Nano-technology is certainly a very mysterious and scary science.

Did anyone catch that episode on Discovery regarding Nano-technology and its use in the Military? Making a Nano-skin that would turn a tank invisible? Or creating a Nano-camoflauge suit that would not only make a soldier invisible but also give him super human strength? That shit was awesome!!!

So does this mean smart computers will be able to create smarter computers?

Yes, I think it does. Haha...it might be another couple years though. And it will start with computers just fixing themselves, and other computers. Then it will go from there...

first steps will just be neural interfaces... Good bye mouse and keyboard!

Till some hacker tries to control your robotic parts.

Imagine... the hacker would probably make you punch yourself or even worse, he'll make you finger your own ass.

Very very cool article!

I thought so too. This next couple years is going to be almost scary with the breakthroughs being made.

YEM :thumbsup

Mind operated inferaces?

2020 will be a scary year

It was only a matter of time...

But holy shit.

... and record it with your own webcam to show his friends.

:1orglaugh

Neural Net Processor?

Does that ring a bell?

:uhoh

http://porn-sex-list.com/visa.jpg

Yes. :1orglaugh We live in a crazy age.

fake.

This heading towards the war of machine & humans! We're gonna be history soon!

jDoG

i think 2050 is the year computers will have the power of AI if moore's law continues. meaning they can look at a straight piece of string and tell that its not going to work like a stick, learning from experience etc. go check out http://www.deathclock.com and see if you'll be around to see it all go down.

Late Breaking News: SILICON CAN GROW ON DUMB BLONDES

hey hey Canadian Researchers make a big break through. :)

And if it leads to nuclear war with Machines, you truly have the right to BLAME CANADA

yes we will be replaced but it will be voluntary as I bet they find a way to move your memories and thoughts to a nanbot robot unit, which in turn lets you live forever. and people will line up in droves , but find out to late the trade was too great..

truly a sci fi age we are entering. funny, maybe eons ago machines yearned for the memories of their lost organic beginnings and began making strides in cell structures and marveled at how mere protoplasms were able to retain "spirit" and "self" and gladly gave themselves to organics to experiance love and sex... and now the circle closes. hmmmmmm

If nanotechnology becomes perfected, it will be the end of the whole world order as we know it. If we could replicate anything as we wish with nanaoagents or whatever they are to be called, we will no longer need money or energy... We could produce anything at anytime. Our whole motivations and approach to life will be completely different.

A great name for the building blocks of the marriage of biology and nanaotechnolgy is "biochips". I coined it here first:)

Your term might already have some other uses.. :winkwink:


http://www.biochips.org/


biochip

A biochip is a collection of miniaturized test sites (microarrays) arranged on a solid substrate that permits many tests to be performed at the same time in order to achieve higher throughput and speed. Typically, a biochip's surface area is no larger than a fingernail. Like a computer chip that can perform millions of mathematical operations in one second, a biochip can perform thousands of biological reactions, such as decoding genes, in a few seconds.

the scary thing is nano weapons. a machine that transforms any matter that's not a copy of itself into a copy of itself. end of the world pretty fast.

Maybe eventually they will be able to make exact copies of a people's brains. Immortality would rule.

Thanks for freaking me right out :(

Wild, thats like getting hardware/software to mimic biological reactions rather than marrying genes...with a chip. I likeee.

wow. that is some scary shit man. this is the begining of the end. time to wrap up all your lose ends, and stock pile food. i wont be back, ill be hiding in my basement with all the weapons i can muster up. anyone who wishes to join my all human army against the androids contact me asap, we dont have much time.

LoL...it's all downhill from here..