Snail Brain Merged with Microchip

[Rounder]

A network of snail brain cells has been cultivated on a silicon chip, an advance that its creators claim is a big step towards microchip implants that can control artificial limbs, restore sight and revive memory function.

Researchers from Calgary University in Alberta, Canada grew the nerve cells on a microchip and found that they could learn and memorize information that could be transmitted to the chip.

“The nerve cells not only regenerate their synaptic connections on the silicon chip but also exhibit memory traces that were successfully read by the chip,” says neurobiologist Naweed Syed. “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.”

Wow, They say that they still have major hurdles in the technology, but still… I tell ya one day I’ll be Johnny Neumonic

[edit] Sorry forgot the linkhttp://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2004-02-23-4

[km2_33]

Bionics, nanotechnology etc are surely the places to be… I only hope the copyright issues (particularly in biology) don’t squash it.

[thinking]…not so sure snail brains cells on microchips actually sounds like they are going smash any speed records though??? [/thinking]

[Rounder]

@km2_33

Bionics, nanotechnology etc are surely the places to be… I only hope the copyright issues (particularly in biology) don’t squash it.

[thinking]…not so sure snail brains cells on microchips actually sounds like they are going smash any speed records though??? [/thinking]

Lol, well later on in the article they said they replicated the same experiments using rat brain cells.

[Tab]

Even more impetus to donate your brain to the furtherment of science when you die…

With a little luck you’ll wake up as a sentient Dildo…

[ Checks Forum ]

Damn - thought we were babbling… Seriously though, I think the only way forward evolutionarily (if that’s a word) is a human-computer interface, the rate science is going (I read somewhere that the publishing rate of new research papers is something like a bookcase filling shelves at 90 mph…) It’ll plateau off simply because one human brain won’t be able to contain enough info to make breakthroughs, or Phd’s will extend into decades… We just ain’t smart enough with our little monkey-brains.