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Robobug: Scientists Clad Bacterium With Graphene To Make a Working Cytobot
Zothecula writes By cladding a living cell with graphene quantum dots, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) claim to have created a nanoscale biomicrorobot (or cytobot) that responds electrically to changes in its environment. This work promises to lay the foundations for future generations of bio-derived nanobots, biomicrorobotic-mechanisms, and micromechanical actuation for a wide range of applications. "UIC researchers created an electromechanical device — a humidity sensor — on a bacterial spore. They call it NERD, for Nano-Electro-Robotic Device. The report is online at Scientific Reports, a Nature open access journal."
From the article:
"We’ve taken a spore from a bacteria [sic], and put graphene quantum dots on its surface – and then attached two electrodes on either side of the spore," said Berry. "Then we change the humidity around the spore. When the humidity drops, the spore shrinks as water is pushed out. As it shrinks, the quantum dots come closer together, increasing their conductivity, as measured by the electrodes. We get a very clean response – a very sharp change the moment we change humidity."
So clearly, it's not a robot, it's a sensor.
It may not be a cytobot but the synergy is 110% buzz word compliant. We put a bug in an electrical field and it reacted in a way similar to an elastomer or sponge.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
So will God Goo get us first, or AI?
Table-ized A.I.
here we come.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
How much of the 'quantum' do we truly understand?
Do we know anything about the other side of the 'quantum dot'?
How do we know there isn't any 'quantum wisdom' hiding on the other side?
By cladding a living cell with things that comes with quantum dots we could be hooking that living cell up with some kind of superduper 'quantum brain' which is so powerful that it can easily defy the fabric of space-time itself !
What if that superduper 'quantum brain' reaches over to this world we live in through those 'quantum dots' and supercharged that living cell?
Why are the so-called 'scientists' keep on carrying out experiments without first thinking of the possible consequences?
All the clever sensing is done by the bacteria, all they've done is attach a big flag to the bacteria so that when it does what it does we can tell.
Whilst this may be very useful, it's hardly outwitting nature, or creating new forms of life, or doing anything that'd be likely to be disastrous in any way.
It's as tho putting a radio collar on a polar bear turns it into some cyborg killing machine.
foo
In other news, in a breakthrough experiment scientists have scaled the experiment up to the macroscopic scale and strapped magnets to a pigeon, which now appears to react to other magnets in its vicinity.
" a humidity sensor — on a bacterial spore. They call it NERD,..."
For the first NERD I would have used a pizza-detector and not a humidity sensor.
And I always thought spores had humidity sensors built-in, after all it's kind of their 'thing'.
Nano scale sensors on a micro scale organism?
It's as tho putting a radio collar on a polar bear turns it into some cyborg killing machine.
Not really a good comparison; the polar bear is already a killing machine, and putting a radio collar on it "could" make it a cyborg. It's either a cyborg killing machine, or a radio tracked killing machine.
The bacteria are in essence, armored AND tracked, which makes them pretty a more like Emo kids with smart phones who tweet their every action. Sounds counter productive; "LOL, just arrived at the Colon and man, this dude is whack!" Sorry, my slang is 10 years un-hip.
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