The brain is without a doubt the most complex organ in the human body, and that is why creating a synthetic natural brain is a very difficult task. But it appears like scientists are getting closer and closer to completing the task of making a machine that behaves like a natural brain. Scientists involved in the BrainScaleS project, a collaboration between 15 research institutions, are trying to create hardware which emulates parts of a natural brain.

According to senior researcher Dr. Johannes Schemmel, “Our goal is to create a working system that will be located in Heidelberg, but accessible online to scientists all over the world”.

Their aim is to construct “neuromorphic hardware” or electronic systems that will rely on transistors and microchips to recreate the behavior of synapses. Their first prototype is an 8 inch large wafer consisting of 51 million artificial synapses. Although that sounds big, it represents just a tiny fraction of a working brain.

The completed hardware is expected to be capable of re-creating neurological processes 10,000 times faster than those in a natural biological system. Schemmel says, “That means that if we want to study a behaviour [in the nervous system] that would take a few minutes in the real biology, it will only take us split seconds”.

But the only problem is that hardware is not as flexible as biology. As Schemmel said, “Come new fundamental findings from biologists, we might just have to change our hardware from scratch”. That’s where software is useful as it can be easily re-programmed. But Schemmel says, “Modeling is essential for neuroscience. If we don’t have models to reconstruct the performance of neurones and synapses, we will never understand how the brain works. We can’t just stuff all this into equations, the behaviour of each individual cell is far too complex for that”.

If the project is a success, we could see great developments in the field of robotics, medicine and neurology. And just in case you are wondering, there is less chance for synthetic brain equipped robots to take over the world.

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Well nature knows best. After all, it used the best possible materials to make the most intriguing and complex machine known to man – the human body. It is a fact that nature’s technology is unmatched. So what better way to find means to push the limits of electronics than to look inside the human body for answers!  The researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU ) are doing exactly that, turning to blood, milk and mucus proteins in their radical quest to develop a transistor, veering away from the traditional ‘top-down’ approach followed in the case of silicon-based electronics.

The results, researchers say, could revolutionize electronics with protein-based transistors forming the base for a new generation of circuits which are of the nano scale, bio degradable and flexible. The research team of TAU, supervised by Dr. Shachar Richter and Prof. Michael Gozin, includes Ph.D students Elad Mentovich, Netta Hendler and Bogdan Belgorodsky. The promising results so far has led the team to believe that they are playing a big role in the transition of silicon era into a carbon one.

When the team applied various combination of proteins (blood, milk and mucous) to a base material, the molecules assembled itself to form a semi-conducting film with each different combination bringing in a different property and that too on a nano scale. This allowed the team to create a complete circuit with electronic as well as optical capabilities. The researchers were able to make use of the natural abilities of each protein to control the characteristics of the transistor like memory, conductivity, storage etc.

They used blood protein’s unique ability to absorb oxygen to dope the semi-conductors using specific chemicals to give it desired properties. Milk protein’s “strength” was used to make fibres for the architecture inside the circuit while mucosal protein’s optical abilities were used in circuits needing advanced optics. The research is cutting edge indeed, especially when you think of how this technology can be adopted to overcome the shortcomings of present day electronics, or addressing the rejection of implanted electronics in the human body.

The carbon-based electronics will also be more flexible than silicon-based ones in use now. Imagine the wide scope it has in areas where flexible technology is used like displays, mobile phones, tablets, microchips, not to mention its applications in the medical field. Being biodegradable, the technology will also solve the biggest problem the world is facing post silicon revolution – electronic waste management.

It pays to turn to nature’s ways, I guess!

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