Single-Celled Organism Converted Into Electronic Oscillator For Bio-Computing 34
KentuckyFC (1144503) writes "The single-celled organism slime mold, or Physarum polycephalum, is an extraordinary creature. It explores its world by extending protoplasmic tubes into its surroundings in search of food and it does this rather well. Various researchers have exploited this process to show how Physarum can find optimal routes between different places and even solve mazes. Now one researcher has worked out how to use these protoplasmic tubes as clock-like electronic oscillators. His experiment was straightforward. He encouraged the growth of protoplasmic tubes between two blobs of agar sitting on electrical contacts. He then measured the resistance of the tubes at various voltages. This turns out to be about 6 megaohms. But the results show something else too: that the resistance oscillates over a period of about 73 seconds. That's due to the tubes contracting as waves of calcium ions pass through them. So altering the period of oscillation should be possible by influencing the production of calcium ions, perhaps using light or biochemistry. Electronic oscillators are significant because they are basic drivers of almost all active electronic devices. But this guy's goal is bigger than this. The plan is to grow a "Physarum chip" that acts as a general purpose computer, a device that will need some kind of oscillator or clock to co-ordinate activity, just as in an ordinary processor, although speed will not be its chief characteristic."
The first step (Score:5, Funny)
Towards an artificial politician.
From a slime mold. It's gotta work.
One step closer to Moldies (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
I hope he gets a lot of instructions per clock... (Score:3, Insightful)
Because 0.0136986 Hz is not that high a clock speed...
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It should be ok for languages which were designed with speed in mind so that it sort of balances out. Java, for instance.
Re: (Score:1)
Cool! (Score:2)
Electric shock torture (Score:3)
Hack (Score:4, Funny)
That oscillating slime mold was delicious!
Frequency Modulation! Make a VLF Radio Out Of It! (Score:3)
In related news ... (Score:4, Funny)
So this is the beggining of... (Score:3)
Star Trek's Bio-neural gel pack [memory-alpha.org]?
Re: (Score:2)
Well if you actually bothered to click on the links (the "Physarum chip" chip one) you would have read all the fields their research would benefit . One of them is Neuro-morphic processing [wikipedia.org] which means emulating how the brain work.
Six megaohms? (Score:3)
Is this creature made out of plastic? I've less than six megaohms, and that's including a layer of skin at both ends!
I hate to ask this, but . . . (Score:2)
Stick it in a synth... (Score:1)