Researcher Develops Chemical Circuit Using Ion Transistors

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Researcher Develops Chemical Circuit Using Ion Transistors

Posted by Unknown on Wednesday May 30, 2012 @02:13AM from the when-do-i-get-cyborg-arms dept.

cylonlover writes news of ion based logic gates. From the article: "While the silicon chips found in the electronic devices that we rely on every day are built around the flow of electrons through circuits, with the development of an 'integrated chemical chip,' a doctoral student in Organic Electronics at Sweden's Linköping University has created the basis for an entirely new circuit technology based on the transmission of ions and molecules. Like silicon-based chips, the integrated chemical chip contains logic gates, such as NAND gates, that form the basis of digital electronics by allowing for the construction of all logical functions."

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Nice -- a bespoke neuron. by jeffb+(2.718) · 2012-05-30 02:18 · Score: 4, Interesting

This is the sort of thing we need to see real progress in neural integration.
1. Re:Nice -- a bespoke neuron. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-30 02:33 · Score: 0
  
  Just make sure to keep your meatbag access point secure, don't want anyone getting unauthorized access to your senses (or worse).
2. Re:Nice -- a bespoke neuron. by Thanshin · 2012-05-30 02:43 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  This is the sort of thing we need to see real progress in self replicating bio-artificial beings.
  Just a few steps remain:
  - Mutate some bacteria to contain one of those integrated chemical chips as a byproduct of their nutrition.
  - Mutate that bacteria again to create different (on mytosis) gates depending on fed nutrients, temperature or somesuch.
  - Find the correct nutrient/temperature/... map (base) over which, when the bacteria are grown, they create a particular circuit.
  - Find which particular circuit creates a map that self replicates.
  - Feel proud as our species is replaced by the ultra-intelligent logical-gate-bacteria-overlords.
3. Re:Nice -- a bespoke neuron. by mcgrew · 2012-05-30 03:07 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  We're going to need a LOT more knowledge about how neurons, axions, and other brain components work first. Just because the circuit is based on ions doesn't mean it's anything at all like an animal's brain works. Note that TFS says "Like silicon-based chips, the integrated chemical chip contains logic gates, such as NAND gates, that form the basis of digital electronics by allowing for the construction of all logical functions."
  Your brain contains no digital circutry. The brain is analog, not binary.
  However, if you're referring to cybernetic implants to help those suffering from brain damage, then perhaps. I don't know enough about the brain or these ionic logic gates to be able to tell. I'm pretty sure there's going to need a hell of a lot more research on the brain to find out.
  I've always wondered why they haven't studied insect brains. Flies do way more complex things than any robot so far invented, and would surely be easier to understand than the workings of a mammal brain.
  
  --
  Free Martian Whores!
4. Re:Nice -- a bespoke neuron. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-30 03:31 · Score: 0
  
  The eyes have some digital circuitry
5. Re:Nice -- a bespoke neuron. by jeffb+(2.718) · 2012-05-30 03:34 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  I've always wondered why they haven't studied insect brains. Flies do way more complex things than any robot so far invented, and would surely be easier to understand than the workings of a mammal brain.
  Um, they kinda do. Really, really hard, in fact.
6. Re:Nice -- a bespoke neuron. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-30 03:50 · Score: 0
  
  I've always wondered why people have trouble spelling words. The word is "axon" not "axion".
7. Re:Nice -- a bespoke neuron. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-30 05:20 · Score: 0
  
  Profit!
8. Re:Nice -- a bespoke neuron. by Defenestrar · 2012-05-30 07:47 · Score: 1
  
  No way - once we realize the bacterial version are self aware, we can start an eukaryote version that the single celled bacterial networks can have an arms race against!
  [???]
  Sell admission.
  Profit!
9. Re:Nice -- a bespoke neuron. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-30 09:42 · Score: 0
  
  You have a pretty high opinion of yourself, huh? My mother always said: If you don't know shit, don't talk shit!
10. Re:Nice -- a bespoke neuron. by dmbasso · 2012-05-30 12:00 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know enough about the brain
  And it shows. You should perhaps refrain from making claims about something you don't know about.
  For instance, you said the brain is analog. Well, a lot of its functionality is as analog as your computer. Take vision, for instance: light -> photoreceptor -> bipolar cell [ok, graded potentials, analog so far] -> ganglion cells [spectral intensity/motion cue encoded in spike frequency: you can argue the period is analog, ok] -> LGN -> visual cortex [here (and over all neocortex really) the spatio-temporal signals are encoded by sets of neurons whose activation is sparse in both space and time, forming steady patterns, couldn't be farther from analog than this].
  The neocortex is the biggest part of the brain, so I can safely say: no, the brain is not only analog and most of it is not.
  It does not use binary logic either, but what GP was referring to (neural integration) could indeed be achieved with something similar to this chip. It will certainly be better than the current stimulation through electrodes.
  
  --
  `echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
11. Re:Nice -- a bespoke neuron. by mcgrew · 2012-05-31 00:59 · Score: 1
  
  Interesting, thank you for the link.
  
  --
  Free Martian Whores!
Teleportation by platypusfriend · 2012-05-30 02:24 · Score: 2

When I think of the movie Tron, or any similar story where a subject is disassembled and reassembled, via computer, I think of stuff like this.
1. Re:Teleportation by cold+fjord · 2012-05-30 05:52 · Score: 1
  
  Star Trek: bio-neural gel packs
  
  --
  much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
coffee on demand? by NikeHerc · 2012-05-30 02:25 · Score: 1

Does this mean I could program the chip to deliver coffee on demand? Or Stoli?

Man, think of the possibilities...

--
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
1. Re:coffee on demand? by platypusfriend · 2012-05-30 02:39 · Score: 1
  
  Sure, until someone hacks the "real time vodka infuser".... (shudder) oh, the horrible possibilities....
2. Re:coffee on demand? by korgitser · 2012-05-30 02:39 · Score: 1
  
  Does this mean I could program the chip to deliver coffee on demand? Or Loli?
  FTFY
  
  --
  FCKGW 09F9 42
Doctoral student? phffft by Grizzley9 · 2012-05-30 02:53 · Score: 2

Sorry, unless it's a high school student coming up with this for a science fair, Slashdot isn't interested.
Student's name by ArhcAngel · 2012-05-30 03:07 · Score: 2, Funny

Is the guys name Soong?

--
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Wrong path? by Corson · 2012-05-30 03:10 · Score: 4, Interesting

It's funny that scientists try to create ion transistors and DNA-based computers. Nature has found other ways to process information, though. Trying to "replicate" electronic circuitry using biologic systems has all the drawbacks of both approaches and little if any of the benefits. Biologic systems are based on chemical diffusion in water solutions, therefore they are slower than electronic systems. However, they are massively parallel, self-organizing, self-repairing, swarm-like, use built-in negative and positive selection, and have a propensity for learning at all structural levels. More importantly, they mix "hardware" and "software" in a way that still escapes human understanding. But then again, why not...
1. Re:Wrong path? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-30 04:15 · Score: 1
  
  RTFA, it talks about how this technology might be useful in controlling human physiology. The point is not to create entire CPUs with this stuff, although (and this is me guessing) the military potential of chemical computers is obvious for EMP protection, redundancy, and power efficiency.
  It reminds me of the backup biochemical brains Culture drones have in that way.
  As for biological systems: neither these circuits nor hypothetical DNA computers are biological systems, they are simply biochemical and do not necessarily have self-repair, evolution, learning, etc.
2. Re:Wrong path? by Eponymous+Hero · 2012-05-30 04:25 · Score: 2
  
  nature created us too. as joe rogan pointed out, nothing humans do is unnatural. if the universe is trying to process infinite information, it behooves it to grow some sentient organic interface it can use to speed things up.
  
  --
  insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
3. Re:Wrong path? by Korin43 · 2012-05-30 04:51 · Score: 2
  
  However, they are massively parallel, self-organizing, self-repairing, swarm-like, use built-in negative and positive selection, and have a propensity for learning at all structural levels. More importantly, they mix "hardware" and "software" in a way that still escapes human understanding.
  And where do you find the geniuses to program these things?
4. Re:Wrong path? by Half-pint+HAL · 2012-05-30 05:07 · Score: 2
  
  It's funny that scientists try to create ion transistors and DNA-based computers. Nature has found other ways to process information, though. Trying to "replicate" electronic circuitry using biologic systems has all the drawbacks of both approaches and little if any of the benefits.
  
  Science has come up with lots of interesting ideas that have been of no practical value in and of themselves that have turned out to be prerequisites for later innovations. For the most useless of the useless, take Prince Rupert's Drops -- beads of glass that are of no use beyond a simple party trick. And yet there's the possibility of making that if we ever start manufacturing things in space, we might be able to produce perfectly spherical Rupert Drops, practically indestructable ball-bearings.
  
  --
  Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Speed... by hey_popey · 2012-05-30 03:13 · Score: 1

Sure it is nice and "cyborg" just got a new dimension, but will transmitting ions and molecules will ever be as fast as transmitting electrons? I doubt that...
1. Re:Speed... by CodeHxr · 2012-05-30 04:47 · Score: 2
  
  It doesn't necessarily have to be as fast if it can have a better bandwidth.