Skip to content

Unexplainable.net

Watching The World Change

  • August 11th, 2011 Tsunami Prediction Information and Theories
  • Mind Control and Hypnosis Simply Unexplainable
  • Japan’s Earth Moves Amid Fears Over Cayce Prophecy Unexplainable Weather
  • Jimmy Carter’s 37 Answers on UFOs UFOs and Aliens
  • Facts About Apollo , God of the Sun Information and Theories
  • Horror Movie Facts: Halloween and More Information and Theories
  • Impaired Judgment Self Improvement
  • Iranian President Ahmadinejad Vows to Eliminate Israel Political Conspiracies

Harvard University Takes First Steps Toward Human Cyborgs

Posted on August 30, 2012 By jim No Comments on Harvard University Takes First Steps Toward Human Cyborgs
Mooker

They beat like real heart cells, but the rat cardiomyocytes in a dish at Harvard University are different in one crucial way.  Snaking through them are wires and transistors that spy on each cell’s electrical impulses.  In the future, the wires might control their behavior too.

Versions of this suped-up, “cyborg” tissue have been created for neurons, muscle and blood vessels.  They could be used to test drugs or as the basis for more biological versions of existing implants such as pacemakers.  If signals can also be sent to the cells, cyborg tissue could be used in prosthetics or to create tiny robots.

“It allows one to effectively blur the boundary between electronic, inorganic systems and organic, biological ones,” says Charles Lieber, who leads the team behind the cyborg tissue.

Artificial tissue can already be grown on three-dimensional scaffolds made of biological materials that are not electrically active.  And electrical components have been added to cultured tissue before, but not integrated into its structure, so they were only able to glean information from the surface.

Lieber’s team combined these strands of work to create electrically active scaffolds.  They created 3D networks of conductive nanowires studded with silicon sensors.  Crucially, the wires had to be flexible and extremely small, to avoid impeding the growth of tissue.  The scaffold also contained traditional biological materials such as collagen.

The researchers were able to grow rat neurons, heart cells and muscle in these hybrid meshes.  In the case of the heart cells, they started to contract just like normal cells, and the researchers used the network to read out the rate of the beats.

When they added a drug that stimulates heart cell contraction, they detected an increase in the rate, indicating the tissue was behaving like normal and that the network could sense such changes.

Lieber’s team also managed to grow an entire blood vessel about 1.5 centimeters long from human cells, with wires snaking through it.  By recording electrical signals from inside and outside the vessel”“ something that was never possible before”“ the team was able to detect electrical patterns that they say could give clues to inflammation, whether tissue has undergone changes that make it prone to tumor formation or suggest impending heart disease.

“You could use these things to directly measure the effects of drugs in synthetically grown human tissue without ever having to test them in an actual human being,” says Lieber’s colleague Daniel Kohane. He also envisions tissue patches that could be added to the surface of a heart, say, to monitor for problems.

Vladimir Parpura, a neurobiologist at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, who was not involved in the study, suggests using the tissue to build tiny, biomimetic robots or implants that repair damaged tissue via electronic pulses.

So far, though, the researchers have only used the electrical scaffolds to record signals and they have yet to feed commands to cells.  So Lieber’s next step is to add components to the nanoscaffold that could “talk” to neurons.  He says the goal is to “wire up tissue and communicate with it in the same way a biological system does”.

Source: New Scientist

Technology Articles

Post navigation

Previous Post: Ancient Rome ”“ Who is Tiberius?
Next Post: Mexican Documentary Will Disclose Mayan Extraterrestrial Connection

Related Posts

  • The Inner Frontier Technology Articles
  • Mustard Agents: an Overview of the Sulfur and Nitrogen Mustard Agents Technology Articles
  • Hayabusa May Have Discovered Life Technology Articles
  • X-37b Orbital Mystery Device’s Trip Extended Technology Articles
  • Scientists Developing Sonic Screwdriver Technology Articles
  • Broadband Networking Through The Human Body Technology Articles

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Mahavatar Babaji: The Yogi alive for 2000 years
  • Spirituality and science conflict
  • Conspiracies and myths about spirituality
  • Know your Ki: Reiki
  • 10 amazing plants to promote spirituality and positivity

Recent Comments

No comments to show.

Archives

  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2018
  • February 2018
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • February 2016
  • September 2015
  • July 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • July 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005
  • September 2005
  • August 2005
  • July 2005
  • June 2005
  • May 2005
  • April 2005
  • March 2005
  • February 2005
  • January 2005
  • December 2004
  • November 2004
  • October 2004
  • September 2004
  • August 2004
  • July 2004
  • June 2004
  • May 2004
  • April 2004
  • March 2004
  • February 2004
  • January 2004
  • December 2003
  • November 2003
  • October 2003

Categories

  • Ancient Civilizations
  • Benjamin Fulford Story
  • Cryptology and Monsters
  • Eating Healthy
  • Ghost And Demons
  • Information and Theories
  • Mars Coverage
  • Meditation And Spirituality
  • Mysteries
  • NASA Articles
  • Other Exciting News
  • Personal Accounts
  • Pictures And Multimedia
  • Political Conspiracies
  • Recent Submissions
  • Religion Articles
  • Self Improvement
  • Simply Unexplainable
  • Space and Astrology
  • Technology Articles
  • True Stories
  • UFOs and Aliens
  • Unexplainable Video Library
  • Unexplainable Weather
  • Active Processes Occuring On Titan (Cassini’s Views) Space and Astrology
  • Nanotechnology is technology performed on the scale of nanometers Other Exciting News
  • Ayurvedic Herbal Preparations and Treatments: Soy and Withania Information and Theories
  • Interesting Reptile Facts: Snakes and More Information and Theories
  • Ghosts From Family Castles in Great Britian Ghost And Demons
  • Alcatraz – Prison of the Dead Ghost And Demons
  • The 2nd Amendment, Nevermore. Political Conspiracies
  • Sir Charles Leonard Woolley , The Tomb of Queen Pu-Abi Ancient Civilizations

Copyright © 2023 Unexplainable.net.

Powered by PressBook News Dark theme