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REAL LIFE NEWS: A LIVE BRAIN IN A ROBOT BODY

by Hazed

Remember Robocop, where the brain of a dead policeman was put into a robot body to become the hybrid law enforcer? Scientists in Arizona have just succeeded in wiring up sensors to a living brain, then connected the hookups to a machine body vastly more powerful than the brain's own body.

However, don't expect to see cyborg-type humans strolling the streets just yet, because instead of using a dead cop, Professor Charles Higgins and his colleagues have chosen to use the brain of something a little simpler: a moth, still mounted in its little moth body.

As the moth tracks the world around it, an electrode it its tiny brain captures faint electrical impulses that a computer translates into action. The moth, which is immobilized inside a plastic tube, is mounted on a six-inch tall wheeled robot. Robo-moth was exhibited at San Diego this week at the annual get-together of the Society for Neuroscience.

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