Rat nerve cell pings computer chip

A rat nerve cell attached to a semiconductor chip has exchanged a signal with the chip, an achievement that could lead to organic computers that process information like a brain, say researchers.

In the long term, the technology also could lead to prosthetic limbs that are controlled by a person’s brain and nerves.

Eventually, the NaChip team plans to move beyond the single rat cell to rat brain. According to Fromherz, the scientists have all of the tools to couple hundreds of neurons to a semiconductor chip and conceivably perform simple computations.

Discovery News