Neuromorphic Chips to Replace Brain Cells (science kits)

September 26th, 2008 Admin Posted in Your source for sciene news and information |

By Robert Webb

Is society moving towards a future where people will be able to replace their biological neurons with computer chips or artificial neurons? Some researchers think that having implantable neural prostheses may be just around the corner. This currently science fiction scenario may actually not be that far off. There has been a continuing development of neural prostheses that are implantable in the brain. This type of implant will signal in a totally new era in bioengineering and also neuroscience research. Researchers have increasinglly made better intracranial implants of devices that are able to communicate with the brain. They can be used for a variety of brain disorders in order to restore either motor, sensory or cognitive functions.

In the future, neuromorphic chips may eventually serve as a replacement for biological neurons. There are quite a few researchers who are working on this. Neuromorphic basically refers to a computer chip that mimics biological neurons such as the firing patterns and connectivity. Neuromorphic chips may be able to function as brain implants for a variety of different people who have brain disorders such as brain damage or stroke. A neuromorphic chip could in theory replace the brain matter that is missing as a result of brain damage.

What about those people who only want to replace their brain matter with something that is more durable? In the future, scientists may eventually create neuron sized robots or maybe even smaller nanorobots that will enable the replacement of biological neurons. The futurist Ray Kurzweil has discussed this possiblity for some time. These nano sized robots may eventually be able to precisely position themselves inside a person’s brain. The nano sized robot could replace all of the relevant synaptic connections and then function as a total replacement for the biological neuron. This could be replicated for every single neuron in the brain until the whole brain had been replaced by non-biological neurons or a neuromorphic type chip.

Having a neuromorphic brain brings up quite a few interesting questions. One is how much of a neuron do we actually need to simulate in a chip to get a good representation? There may be a lot of the information inside a real neuron that may actually be quite superfluous. However scientists really don’t know enough why an aggregate amount of atoms inside a person’s brain can sustain a unitary conscious experience. It is really not that clear how much information inside the neuron is really needed to functionally replicate all of its processes.

Will a neuromorphic chip be able to replicate our current experience of consciousness? Consciousness is actually a really complex emergent function of several aspects of brain processes at multiple levels. It is currently at all not clear if consciousness can really be replicated merely by having a model of all of the computational capacity in the brain via a bunch of artificial neurons and also synaptic connections.

What would be the actual benefits of having a brain replaced by artificial neurons? Well, for one thing this would be a much more durable substrate that would likely be much less susceptible to damage. Currently our biological neurons are fairly fragile. They often die off over the course of our lifetimes. So having these artificial neurons might be beneficial for extreme life extension as your brain would be able to last quite a bit longer. Overall, though, there might be some enormous benefits to replacing your biological neurons with a functional artificial chip equivalent.

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It’s the End of the World As We Know It
By Patrick Omari

Wednesday the 10th of September could be the last day in the history of the World, which wouldn’t be very convenient for those with travel plans at the weekend. What could cause the end of the world; a meteor strike? A mass tsunami? Or something man made? Something mechanical in the good name of ’science’ perhaps.

It could either be the end of the world or the start for a great period of scientific discovery in one of the most highly debated areas.

Fears are building as quick as protests can be mustered as scientists in Geneva at the European laboratory for particle physics (CERN) prepare to switch on its Large Hedron Collider. If the fears are held true we will all vanish into a black hole as the Earth and the solar system cease to exist. In this dimension at least.

While many are opposed to the experiment and fear it means the end, the physicists and scientists all agree that the collider is perfectly harmless and the chances of destroying the Earth through the experiment are infinitesimally small. CERN, who have been building the collider since 2003, have dismissed the risk of micro black holes and quasars being created by the experiment.

The idea is to gain a greater understanding of the Big Bang and the Universe as the Large Hedron Collider will explore the tiniest particles and come closer to re-enacting the Big Bang. The LHC will smash two beams of particles head-on at speeds close to the speed of light and scientists hope to see new particles in the debris of the collisions.

Proton beams - nuclei - will spin 11,000 times a second around the 17 -mile tunnel, nestled under 150-500 feet of earth on the French-Swiss border. Once a beam has been successfully fired counter-clockwise a clockwise test will follow before the scientists will aim the beams at each other so that the protons collide. Enough energy will be created to recreate conditions that existed one trillionth of a second after the Big Bang.

The energy will liberate thousands of quarks and gluons, normally imprisoned in the proton beams, which will then form the quark-gloun plasma. The plasma then cools and the quarks and gluons stick together forming protons and neutrons, the building blocks of matter and thus enabling scientists a greater understanding of the creation and makeup of matter.

The size of the tunnel and superconducting magnets give a hint but the size of this project is a monster in itself, black hole or no black hole. Researchers of 80 nationalities are involved and the price of the project sits at a cosmically large 5 billion pounds.

The first beams of protons will be fired to test the strength of the superconducting magnets, the largest on Earth, on Wednesday 10th and it will still be almost a month before the beams travelling in opposite directions are bought together in the collisions that so many are worried about.

So worried, in fact, that some protesters have filed suit in the U.S District Court in Hawai and in the European Court of Human Rights in an attempt to stop the project - citing that it incurs upon the basic human right to live.

It’s not just the potential calamity that could ensue that people are protesting over. The cost of the experiment has got a lot of people rattled especially considering the contributions from individual countries. With pressing issues such as climate change, many feel that the funding and research could be better spent.

While it may sound like the readings of an overly complicated science-fiction novel to some, the ideal cure for insomnia to others, a terrifying portent of doom to protesters or a huge waste of money and resources to those remaining nay-sayers, Wednesday’s experiment has certainly fired up a lot of debate before the machine has even been fired up.

Patrick is an expert travel researcher and writer currently researching Manchester Airport Parking, Manchester Airport Hotels and Airparks Gold Manchester

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