"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed."

-Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

Showing posts with label but-is-it-alive?-dept.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label but-is-it-alive?-dept.. Show all posts

Friday, September 11, 2009

If I Only Had A Brain...

Your handy-dandy Roomba might soon have no reason to lament its lack of brain cells - an article in New Science reports that two researchers at the University of Reading, UK, have been working on controlling simple robots with neurons - that is to say, honest-to-gosh live brain tissue. Their current work has been done with rat neurons; but they hope to upgrade to human cells in their next phase.

Scary? Awesome? What potential uses for such technology can you think of?