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posted by CoolHand on Saturday August 27 2016, @03:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the can't-get-it-out-of-our-heads dept.

A team of scientists has demonstrated control of chemical delivery in the brain of a cockroach using electromagnetism. For effect, this was made to correspond with specific patterns of brain activity:

A man has used thought alone to control nanorobots inside a living creature for the first time. The technology released a drug inside cockroaches in response to the man's brain activity – a technique that may be useful for treating brain disorders such as schizophrenia and ADHD.

Getting drugs to where they need to be exactly when you want them is a challenge. Most drugs diffuse through the blood stream over time – and you're stuck with the side effects until the drug wears off. Now, a team at the Interdisciplinary Center, in Herzliya, and Bar Ilan University, in Ramat Gan, both in Israel, have developed a system that allows precise control over when a drug is active in the body.

The group has built nanorobots out of DNA, forming shell-like shapes that drugs can be tethered to. The bots also have a gate, which has a lock made from iron oxide nanoparticles. The lock opens when heated using electromagnetic energy, exposing the drug to the environment. Because the drug remains tethered to the DNA parcel, a body's exposure to the drug can be controlled by closing and opening the gate.

To get the DNA bots to respond to a person's thoughts, the team trained a computer algorithm to distinguish between a person's brain activity when resting and when doing mental arithmetic. The team then attached a fluorescent drug to the bots and injected them into a cockroach sat inside an electromagnetic coil. A person wearing an EEG cap that measures brain activity was then instructed either to do mental calculations, or rest. The cap was connected to the electromagnetic coil, switching it on when the man was calculating and off when he was resting. By examining when fluorescence appeared inside different cockroaches, the team confirmed that this worked.

[more]

The article discusses some applications for an improved version of the technique that would involve a miniaturized brain-monitoring device that could detect certain patterns, such as a coming "violent episode of schizophrenia" or lapse in concentration. The detection would trigger the DNA nanobots to release a drug in response, such as Ritalin.

My scenario: your EEG device detects that you are tired and sluggish, and you get a rapid release of caffeine, ephedrine, methamphetamine, nicotine, and cocaine. Boredom could trigger a release of tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol, and frustration while working on a problem could release a fast-acting depressant and slow-acting lysergic acid diethylamide. Sounds crazy? One of the authors, Sachar Arnon, says that "People could take this in all different directions. Imagine if you could deliver the exact amount of alcohol that you wanted to keep you in a happy state but not drunk. Kind of stupid, but this could happen. I think we've just scratched the surface."

Thought-Controlled Nanoscale Robots in a Living Host (open, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0161227) (DX)


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by archfeld on Saturday August 27 2016, @03:44AM

    by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Saturday August 27 2016, @03:44AM (#393851) Journal

    One step closer to a proactive immune system ? Nano-bots inside your body that identify foreign agents and contaminants and take steps to eliminate them. The cure for the common cold and bio-weapons in the same package. Some day they might even separate oxygen from water and allow for truly aquatic humanoids. The potential is both incredibly exciting and terribly scary.

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  • (Score: 2) by Gravis on Saturday August 27 2016, @03:43PM

    by Gravis (4596) on Saturday August 27 2016, @03:43PM (#393955)

    One step closer to a proactive immune system ?

    possibly.

    Nano-bots inside your body that identify foreign agents and contaminants and take steps to eliminate them. The cure for the common cold and bio-weapons in the same package.

    these are not those kind of nanomachines. what they have done is created DNA that unzips which releases a chemical payload after it bumps into a cellular target.

    Some day they might even separate oxygen from water and allow for truly aquatic humanoids.

    actually, no. for something like that you would need to have you lungs lined with machines that do that work and pass it directly to your lungs. alternatively, you would need them to modify your lungs to process water. in either case, it would require a huge amount of energy. maybe there is a use for all our sugary foods... in 200 years.

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday August 27 2016, @11:38PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday August 27 2016, @11:38PM (#394059) Journal