[biomed] [tt] Nanoneural Upgrade Creates Something Half Brain, Half Ultra-Tech

[Hughes, James J.]

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/11/nanoneural-upgr.html

Nanoneural Upgrade Creates Something Half Brain, Half Ultra-Tech

By Casey Kazan Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff

GFPneuron.jpgYou've always been told that you can "improve your mind" by
learning, but a group of European scientists have decided to be more
direct about it. They've learned that neural activity can be increased
by grafting brain cells onto nano-tubes, thereby creating something
that's half brain, half ultra-tech, all awesome.

The work clamps a bunch of hippocampus cells to a fullerene nanotube.
Trials have shown that the brain cells grow very effectively on the
nanomaterial, indicating that this junction could be a biocompatible
link between mind and machine. Even better, the single-walled nanotubes
can actually accelerate signaling between neural cells. Electrical
signals can be conducted by the tube, and are transmitted faster than by
the cells' own axon connections.

The team intend to use this nanoneurology to repair spinal cord
injuries. The scaffold can steer the cells between the existing cells,
while newly grown nerves can complete the connection. When the chance to
heal people otherwise thought permanently paralyzed is just the first
test of a new technique? That's when you know that science is awesome.

Faster signalling doesn't mean faster thinking - the cells can still
only fire at a certain speed. But the ability to provide extra
connections between brain cells, and use the nanoscaffold to steer their
development, offers limitless possibilities. By their very nature brain
cells learn and adapt to form a network - faster connections doesn't
mean faster thinking, but extra connections and new architectures offer
the chance for entirely new modes of thought.

The problem is that tinkering with the human mind is pretty much every
moral and ethical minefield on the planet jammed together (all the
experiments so far have been on rat cells). If somebody wants to
engineer a hyperbrain they'll have to do it in secret. But then again,
if someone is working to use the latest nanotechnology to create a race
of ultraintelligent cyborgs it's certain that they'll be working in
secret. To avoid James Bond killing them.
_______________________________________________
tt mailing list
tt at postbiota.org
http://postbiota.org/mailman/listinfo/tt