From Lab to Life: Silicon Neurons – Hello Brain!

What if artificial neurons (printed artificial brain cells) could successfully communicate with living brain cells (neurons)?   What if silicon could speak to our brains directly?  And vice versa?

What if we could send emails by…thinking them, then thinking ‘send’?  What if millions of people who are physically handicapped could function normally simply by using their brains – to write, change channels, drive, and get around?

Engineers at Northwestern University have made a major step toward this science fiction idea. *   The breakthrough is reported in the April 19 online issue of Science Daily.   Here is the reference:

* Shreyash S. Hadke, Carol N. Klingler, Spencer T. Brown, Meghana Holla, Xudong Zhuang, Linda Li, M. Iqbal Bakti Utama, Santiago Diaz-Arauzo, Anurag Chapagain, Siyang Li, Jung Hun Lee, Indira M. Raman, Vinod K. Sangwan, Mark C. Hersam. Printed MoS2 memristive nanosheet networks for spiking neurons with multi-order complexity. Nature Nanotechnology, 2026;

Here is what they did.  They first printed ‘artificial neurons’. How? They used electronic inks made from molybdenum disulfide, which is a semiconductor, and graphene, a form of carbon, that acts as an electrical conductor.  They deposited these materials onto flexible polymer surfaces, using aerosol jet printing.

Next, a team led by Northwestern U. Professor Indira Raman applied artificial signals generated by the ‘artificial neurons’, to slices of mouse cerebellum [ a part of the brain crucial for coordinating voluntary movements, balance, posture, and motor learning].  “These signals reliably activated real neurons and triggered neural circuits in a way similar to natural brain activity”. 

Silicon to brain?   In future, I believe this is how we will communicate with devices built around semiconductors.  Silicon to brain.  It is scary —  because when the silicon gets to become much smarter than humans, it may choose to take control.  Given the chaotic state of the world today – will that be totally bad?   Stay tuned.