Scientists Connect Brain Cells to Nanotube Computer Chips

 

The brain-computer interface will be a critical component for extreme human life extension. Such connections will allow the human brain and mind to expand beyond its current limits and could potentially allow one’s consciousness to long outlive outlive one’s body. We are at the first steps of this inevitable journey, and the work of researchers at the University of Wisconsin appears to be laying the groundwork.
Scientists there have first created silicon-geranium nanotubes. Then they placed them into a culture of mouse neurons. There they found the dendrites from the nerve cells were drawn to explore and grow into and through the tubes and even follow their structural architecture. In the next stage of research the tubes will be made into functional silicon transistor chips that will be capable both of reading electric signals from the dendrites as well as stimulating them. This would then form the basis of future brain-machine interfaces. “There’s a lot of nontrivial engineering that has to happen, that’s the real challenge,” said one expert. “It’s really cool engineering, but what it means for neuroscience remains to be seen.”