The wetted silk can apply a thin silicon layer directly to the brain's contours, shrink-wrap style, and monitor brain activity
Posted 04.19.2010 at 11:30 am
4 Comments
Silk-Silicon Let me get inside your head
John Rogers
Implanting clunky electrodes or other devices inside people's heads could someday give way to smoother, silkier neuromedicine. Scientists say that they have successfully measured the electrical activity of cat brains by using a silk-silicon surface mesh, according to Technology Review.
Silk films can easily be rolled up and slipped through a small hole made in the skull. When wetted with saline, the film helps the silicon circuits conform directly to the brain's surface and even slip inside crevices.
Related Articles
Tags
Technology, Jeremy Hsu, brain activity, brains, cat brains, electrical activity, electrodes, implants, mesh, silicon, silk, surface electrodes, TRANSISTORSScientists hope that they can someday shrink-wrap the entire brain with a silky mesh and monitor brain activity for years on end. But first they must figure out how to add silicon transistors which can help amplify signals and actively respond to brain activity by applying electrical stimuli, or perhaps even releasing drugs.
Integrating the transistors may prove tricky because of the silk mesh structure, rather than just a silk sheet. But the same group has already shown how to wrap a flexible sensor array of nanomembrane transistors around the beating hearts of pigs. We'd place good money on seeing this happen a lot sooner than recreating a virtual feline mind, in any case.
Brain Mesh: Time to shrink-wrap that brain John Rogers/Nature Materials
[via Technology Review]
4 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Technology
138 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.
Innovation Challenges
Popular Science+ For iPad
Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page
Download Our App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
March 2012: The Future of Medicine
A 10,000-rpm, no-pulse heart is completely revolutionizing how we think about transplants. Plus: rapid-response virus hunters, a shocking cure for migraines, the world's youngest person to have achieved nuclear fusion (in his parents' garage!), and much more.
Popular on Popsci
Most Viewed
Technology
- The Best Science Podcasts for the Enjoyment of Your Ears and Brain
- DNA Sequencer Plugs Right Into Your USB Port, Analyzes Your Genome
- The World Through Google's Smartglasses
- Thermoelectric "Power Felt" Fabric Lets You Sit on Your Phone to Power It
- Japanese Construction Company Plans Space Elevator By 2050
- The Race For The Next Big Thing In Green Illumination
- The Yamaha Moegi Demonstrates The Future of Fuel Efficiency
- World's Tiniest Possible Transistor Created Out of a Single Phosphorus Atom
- Simulated Mars Base Will Help Future Menu Planners Pack the Interplanetary Pantry
- Hubble Discovers the First 'Waterworld,' an Exoplanet Covered in Water
Most Emailed
Technology
- The Best Science Podcasts for the Enjoyment of Your Ears and Brain
- DNA Sequencer Plugs Right Into Your USB Port, Analyzes Your Genome
- The World Through Google's Smartglasses
- Thermoelectric "Power Felt" Fabric Lets You Sit on Your Phone to Power It
- Japanese Construction Company Plans Space Elevator By 2050
- The Race For The Next Big Thing In Green Illumination
- The Yamaha Moegi Demonstrates The Future of Fuel Efficiency
- World's Tiniest Possible Transistor Created Out of a Single Phosphorus Atom
- Simulated Mars Base Will Help Future Menu Planners Pack the Interplanetary Pantry
- Hubble Discovers the First 'Waterworld,' an Exoplanet Covered in Water
Most Commented
Technology
- The Yamaha Moegi Demonstrates The Future of Fuel Efficiency
- Today's NASA Budget: 'Irrational' Cuts to Planetary Science Mean Mars Missions Get the Axe
- How to Take a Picture of a Black Hole
- Video: President Obama Test-Fires a Marshmallow Cannon at the White House Science Fair
- After Animal Activists Track Pigeon Hunt With Drone, Pigeon Hunters Shoot Down Drone
- Video: DARPA's Legged Squad Support System (a.k.a. Big Dog) Goes Outside to Play
- The World Through Google's Smartglasses
- Waterless Washing Machine Levitates Laundry and Cleans It With Dry Ice
- Japanese Construction Company Plans Space Elevator By 2050
- Hubble Discovers the First 'Waterworld,' an Exoplanet Covered in Water
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2009 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Wow! Very cool and very scary :)
Ivan Malagurski
Like placing an intricate set of paths inside one of those dissolving mouth fresheners and using it to pick up signals sent by your tongue. Neat :)
"Melts" hehe
If it works on a heart, it makes sense that it would work pretty well on a brain as well. I would hope they're wanting to use memristors instead of transistors to signal it back tho, seems like a better use of the technology at hand ;)
I feel like more and more everyday we are coming closer to making our fantasies reality! I think that this is a great step forward in the future of bio-mechanical integration. There is obviously no doubt that the analysis of brainwaves in real time could produce a wealth of new products and technologies to better the human experience. In fact I was just watching a video about how the military is analyzing the brainwaves of pilots to make the future of flight much safer. It's pretty groundbreaking stuff. I'll post a link to the video if you want to see more for yourself. I can't wait to see what they are gonna do with all this data on the inner workings of a cat brain?
www.ndep.us/Brainwaves
I want nothing less than graphene with imbedded memristors on my brain!