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Part-Human, Part-Machine Transistor Devised
asukasoryu writes "Man and machine can now be linked more intimately than ever, according to a new article in the journal ACS Nano Letters. Scientists have embedded a nano-sized transistor inside a cell-like membrane and powered it using the cell's own fuel. To create the implanted circuit, the UC scientists combined a carbon nanotube transistor, lipid bilayer coating, ion pump, and ATP. The ion pump changes the electrical charge inside the cell, which then changes the electrical charge going through the transistor, which the scientists could measure and monitor."
Everyone add the tag, Cylons to this one. :-D
They said nothing about sexually-triggered bioluminescence.
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So they put a transister inside a cell membrane. How exactly does that make it part human?
It's powered by the cell, and not its own battery?
Imagine having a wrist calculator that was more reliable than a solar calculator, but you have to eat a bit more.
So they put a transister inside a cell membrane. How exactly does that make it part human? Every living creature has cells that have phospholipid bilayers.
More generally, it is not true to say that a lipid bilayer is even 'biological' in any meaningful sense. Ok, so the ion pump that they used is biological, since it was probably extracted from a cell. There have been designed (artificial) ion pumps, however, which could be used instead.
Perhaps this is too pedantic, but this is really bio-mimetics rather than bio-chemistry... Anyway, where is Dr Baltar and his detector when we need him? Fracking toasters everywhere!
So will this be the next weight loss method? If I am powering electronics it must come from burning calories correct?
Obviously to sensationalize the article. How else to get people to read it? If they just said, “Biologically Powered Transistor Devised”, then people would be all ho hum about it. But if you invoke images of Terminator or Cylons, then people notice. As a matter of fact, nowhere in the article do any of the researchers say anything about this being human. They all refer to the cells in very generic terms. It could be any cells.
I'd rather have one that just drew power from my vast stores of... well, let's just say I shouldn't eat more.
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According to the actual article, there was no cell involved, only proteins resembling a cell wall. Nor was anything human mentioned.
In short, the article describes how they rapped a protein layer around the nano-transistor and it worked. Then it speculated on what it might be able to do in the future.
While powering a single transistor from the cell is interesting, a single transistor can only be on or off. Since, based on the data supplied in the article, there isn't a mechanism to trigger the on/off state, then it seems to be limited use.
Of more interest is the mention of the research done at the Hebrew University where they accomplished the same thing but by using enzymes that the cell ignored. The reason this is more interesting is that enzymes may be able to be tailored to work with specific cell functions, versus just being powered by the the cell.
Fuck low power CPU's. I want to lose weight!
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