the Zebra fish (before the Terminator) – breaking latest news

Linkping University or LiU is one of Sweden’s largest academic institutions. Here may have been laid the foundations of the bioelectronic chimera that director James Cameron transformed into the cyborg Terminator, half man and half robot, immortalized in worldwide filmography by Arnold Swarznegger.
According to a study just published in Science, however, Swedish researchers, instead of giving birth to this bioelectronic hybrid from the sophisticated Skynet neuronic network program of film fiction, started from the opposite biological side obtaining the prototype connection between nerve cells and electronic networks starting from a simple little fish, the zebra fish. In recent decades, the usefulness of this fish in neuroscience has grown as it has been discovered that it has a nervous system which, although primitive, is very similar to ours in terms of physiological reactions, with the advantage of being able to be manipulated genetically easily. which makes it a convenient model for discovering our reactions to certain stimuli. Another animal the researchers worked on the medical leech (Hirudo medicinalis) the same one used in bloodletting: this animal too can provide clear responses to stimuli which are useful for understanding the basic mechanisms of dynamic and adaptive behaviors common to almost all animals, with the advantage of having a nervous system so simple as to be read easily.

biological electrodes
The researchers have created an injectable gel based on electrically conductive enzymes which have become non-eliminable biological electrodes fused with the host’s nervous system and becoming receptors of electrical stimuli sent from the outside which changed the functionality of the nerves with which they were connected. Swedish researchers have long been dedicated to the large-scale synthesis of colloidal materials consisting of proteins, enzymes, antibodies, conducting polymers with controllable chemical properties and nano/microstructural morphologies such as e.g. the PEDOT gel (polypyrrole and poly3,4 ethylenedioxythiophene). Perhaps the new era of cyborgs will start from Sweden instead of the USA as in Cameron’s film.