Rat-brained robot to aid Alzheimer's researchers.
In a case of science fiction meets reality, Scientists at the University of Reading have created a simple robot navigated by a blob of rat brain. A blob of some 300,000 rat brain neurons is maintained in a temperature-controlled container as it uses Bluetooth to send and receive signals to and from a simple sonar-navigated robot. Placed within a lab rat's maze, the robot behaves... well, like a rat!
The rat-robot was created as an avenue for researches to attempt to unlock the mysteries of Alzheimer's Disease, enabling them to observe how memories are recorded as the brain learns and what happens when it deteriorates. So far, the brain cells have learnt how to control the robot's movements and will soon be learning how to recognise its surroundings.
Read more about the robot at these links:
technology.newscientist.com
www.bbc.co.uk
Butterflies - can you trust them tomorrow?
In a similar but scarier turn of events, the Pentagon's defence scientists are trying to develop an army of cyber-insects. The idea is to insert Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) into insects such as butterflies during the pupa stage, so that the organs will grow around and integrate with the MEMS chip. The MEMS chip will then be powered by either insect heat or movement, and allow the host insect to be remotely controlled. These insects can then be used to relay information such as sensing for chemicals present in explosives.
Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which is tasked with maintaining the technologival superiority of the US military, believes that taking advantage of the evolution of insects at the pupa stage can lead towards an assembly line of MEMS-insect hybrids.
"Through each metamorphic stage, the insect body goes through a renewal process that can heal wounds and reposition internal organs around foreign objects," Darpa's proposal document reads.
Read more about the MEMS hybrid project at:
dvices.com
www.bbc.co.uk
On a related topic, check out Darpa's 'stealth shark spies' - developing sharks with neural implants to track vessels undetected.
I think we should all just leave nature as it is :/
In a case of science fiction meets reality, Scientists at the University of Reading have created a simple robot navigated by a blob of rat brain. A blob of some 300,000 rat brain neurons is maintained in a temperature-controlled container as it uses Bluetooth to send and receive signals to and from a simple sonar-navigated robot. Placed within a lab rat's maze, the robot behaves... well, like a rat!
The rat-robot was created as an avenue for researches to attempt to unlock the mysteries of Alzheimer's Disease, enabling them to observe how memories are recorded as the brain learns and what happens when it deteriorates. So far, the brain cells have learnt how to control the robot's movements and will soon be learning how to recognise its surroundings.
Read more about the robot at these links:
technology.newscientist.com
www.bbc.co.uk
Butterflies - can you trust them tomorrow?
In a similar but scarier turn of events, the Pentagon's defence scientists are trying to develop an army of cyber-insects. The idea is to insert Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) into insects such as butterflies during the pupa stage, so that the organs will grow around and integrate with the MEMS chip. The MEMS chip will then be powered by either insect heat or movement, and allow the host insect to be remotely controlled. These insects can then be used to relay information such as sensing for chemicals present in explosives.
Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which is tasked with maintaining the technologival superiority of the US military, believes that taking advantage of the evolution of insects at the pupa stage can lead towards an assembly line of MEMS-insect hybrids.
"Through each metamorphic stage, the insect body goes through a renewal process that can heal wounds and reposition internal organs around foreign objects," Darpa's proposal document reads.
Read more about the MEMS hybrid project at:
dvices.com
www.bbc.co.uk
On a related topic, check out Darpa's 'stealth shark spies' - developing sharks with neural implants to track vessels undetected.
I think we should all just leave nature as it is :/
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