Nerve Cells Successfully Grown on Silicon

crabpeople writes "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."

...finally... it all makes sense

[derphilipp]

Plant human cells in an elevator-controlling unit and you'll have the dumbest movie ever.... [imdb.com]

Its the start!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Haven't you learned anything on the matrix?
You'll be the reason of extinction!!!

yes i am paranoid.

[odenshaw]

why do I feel like this is the beginning of the end?

One more reason to stay away from school!

[Anonymous Coward]

Might as well stop studiying now, soon we can download information directly to our brains anyway!

Huge market?

[Homology]

nerve cells grown on a microchip can learn and memorize information which can be communicated to the brain.

The researches have read some Slashdot posts, and believe that there must be a huge market for this chip. There is clearly a need for it ;-)

Magical Transistor

[spaceghst]

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

I'd like to see this transistor...

fud

Re:yes i am paranoid.

[mirko]

Because you somehow found out a correlation with this [slashdot.org]...
And/Or maybe with this [acronymfinder.com]...

I could use a ..

[Kalroth]

.. memory upgrade implant, specially in the mornings.
It would also be cool with an encyclopedia or even a few o'reilly books implanted.

Too bad it seems to be a one-way communication only, otherwise a spellchecker implant would be cool too :-)

Overlords

[Anonymous Coward]

I, for one, welcome own new grown organic nerve and silicon masters.

I call dibs on implants

[Matimus]

Seriously, this is what I have been waiting for,

If I were you I would welcome your new ME overlord.

Re:Just like sci-fi.

[ottawanker]

Bah, I just use LSD when I want to "feel" or "manipulate" things.. Plus, those chips don't seem cheap or very safe.

mmmm...

[Anonymous Coward]

....chips

synaptic strength was enhanced

[gentoo_is_bogus]

"synaptic strength was enhanced" What the...? I don't recall this term in my functional neurosceince calsses.

Catching a virus

[ClaudiusMinimus]

would have a whole new meaning...

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

very cool...

[zeruch]

...but I still think Natural Stupidity will outpace Artificial (or artificially enhanced) Intelligence.

Skynet

[Karem Lore]

da da dum de dum.
da da dum de dum.
da da dum de dum.

Termihuman III, coming to a cinema near you.

In the year 2250, a small pocket resistance of humans find the means to develop an organic gooker. Using the power of jelly to disable our circuit boards, they start a highly accurate military campaign to overrun the machines...

Tron and Tran, are a simple couple thrown together in this all-action, pistol pumping, explosion-full chase between man and machine. Will their love be enough to conquer the invading humans, or will the humans finally overcome the race they created.

Rated 18 with scenes of sex with hoover connectors and frequent uses of acronyms.

A film by Widget Jones.

In other news

[NorwBlue]

Ely Lilly release the new Prozac add-on for nervous cpu's

Re:Hasn't this been done before?

[nhaze]

Yeah I could have sworn they presented something at a conference that showed the different signals they were getting. They even rigged the net up to a DOOM like simulator and let the neural net learn to navigate.

This could really upset international politics

[hazman]

Imagine a U.S. President that is simply a marionette made of organic plasma being controlled and manipulated by puppeteers and handlers behind the curtain - stringlessly AND wirelessly.

Another great steps

[Xenobane]

towards a virtual girlfriend.

Re:Just like sci-fi.

[krumms]

then the guy starts to "feel" and "manipulate" things.

I didn't know Asimov wrote THOSE kinds of books :P

Well

[RightInTheNeck]

Right now theres a lab room somewhere filled with caged chimpanzees discussing who has to take the first one after witnessing buckets of vasoline being stacked in the corner of the lab the last few nights.

Sirius Cybernetics Corporation

[Rassendyll]

So that's how the "real people personalities" work. Guess the crowd at University of Calgary will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes!

My computer already has a mind of it's own...

[Serious Simon]

The last thing I would want is to make it nervous.

I wonder

[Gendhil]

Who'll be the first to upload a linux distro into the brain of an actual pinguin.

Re:implants

[Anonymous Coward]

wouldnt want to slashdot a human....nah there would be no humans no more

Speed issues...

[elFarto the 2nd]

The team cultured nerve cells from a snail...

I'm thinking it might be a bit slow :)

Regards
elFarto

Re:Other uses?

[Anonymous Coward]

We'd all go to taco bell or kfc
In soviet russia resturant chooses you!

Re:Its the start!!!

[wheresdrew]

Who cares? Just so long as I can use this to learn kung-fu (or how to fly a helicopter) in less than 10 seconds.

but where's the RFID?

[ThePretender]

'We discovered that when we used the chip to stimulate the neurons, their synaptic strength was enhanced,'

...and when we added the RFID, the test subjects had great futures working for Wal-Mart as they could communicate directly with the pallets of merchandise. In 2.0, the store employees will automagically know when the Gillette razors need to be restocked. :-)

Re:Kinda cool

[rofa]

I haven't lost my mind. I have a backup on tape somewhere.

Re:I'm no Bill Joy

[Anonymous Coward]

and just by thinking, you could hack a gibson. or hack gibson.

Re:Kinda cool

[Anonymous Coward]

Or, more likely, we'll be getting sued by the RIAA for memorizing songs.

Re:Kinda cool: Neurons vs. Transistors

[Anonymous Coward]

This is very much an analog computing circuit; now the question is how efficiently you can do A/D-D/A conversion on this scale.

Also, if your silicon starts to chug, will you need a heatsink on your skull to cool it? Body temperature isn't ideal for microcircuitry. Could I take the heatsink off if I'm not thinking about a diffucult problem? Would my AMD coprocessor catch fire if my heatsink were jostled? Would my Intel coprocessor throttle it's clock and make me dumber in the summer?

And would my 60 year old barber still cut my hair if I have a huge hunk of metal clamped to my head?