Bionic rats
"A rat lies motionless on a sterile, spotless table.
It is alive, but heavily sedated.
Closer inspection reveals that this is no ordinary rodent.
..."
"Science fiction helped the researchers come up with the idea of replicating a specific brain function with a microchip.
The genre has long been populated by cyborgs and other related creatures, from Terminator and Robocop to Isaac Asimov's bionic robots and Blade Runner's bioengineered "replicants".
Although neuroscientists have quite literally been picking at the brain for decades, it is only recently that there have been significant breakthroughs in the area."
""The only way to for such a project to succeed is by combining different disciplines - and this is where 'nano-bio-info-cogno' comes in - uniting nanotechnology, biology, informatics and cognitive science," says Prof Mira Marcus-Kalish of Tel Aviv University, who is also taking part in the project.
"We take nanoelectrodes into a biology application, try to analyse everything through informatics, and then also use cognition."
The next step will be getting the rats to perform not just one, but several physical actions, says Prof Mintz."
A computer model of the chip that is attached to the rat
