Robot Brings Patch-Clamping To the Masses 59
scibri writes about robots helping neuroscientists dig into the brains of (animal) test subjects. From the article: "Robots designed to perform whole-cell patch-clamping, a difficult but powerful method that allows neuroscientists to access neurons' internal electrical workings, could make the tricky technique commonplace. Scientists from MIT have designed a robot that can record electrical currents in up to 4 neurons in the brains of anesthetized mice (abstract) at once, and they hope to extend it to up to 100 at a time. The robot finds its target on the basis of characteristic changes in the electrical environment near neurons. Then, the device nicks the cell's membrane and seals itself around the tiny hole to access the neuron's contents."
Re:Die and leave a copy, or die and don't. (Score:5, Interesting)
It doesn't have to be that way. You would slowly replace parts of your brain with wetware until it was all artificial.
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/135207-harvard-creates-cyborg-flesh-thats-half-man-half-machine [extremetech.com]
You would then still be "you", and not two of you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus [wikipedia.org]
"Plutarch thus questions whether the ship would remain the same if it were entirely replaced, piece by piece. Centuries later, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes introduced a further puzzle, wondering: what would happen if the original planks were gathered up after they were replaced, and used to build a second ship.[3] Which ship, if either, is the original Ship of Theseus?"
Patch-Clamping To the Masses (Score:4, Interesting)
Patch-Clamping To the Masses
1) Almost nobody on /. knows about or will ever see this technique practiced
2) BTW, it is done in vitro or in instrumented animal models, not in your head. At least not with any reasonable expectation of safety in the hands of "the masses."
3) At the moment there are essentially no practical applications of patch clamping "for the masses"
If I am mistaken, then boy are we in deep shit now.