

Mind-controlled transgene expression by a wireless-powered designer cell implant - benbreen
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/141111/ncomms6392/full/ncomms6392.html

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apl
Ugh, yet another entry in the emerging genre of "We combined well-established
techniques in order to generate a vaguely sci-fi-sounding scenario." Other
noteworthy examples:

1) Brain-to-brain control:
[http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjourna...](http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0111332)

2) Rats controlling each other across large distances:
[http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/130228/srep01319/full/srep01...](http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/130228/srep01319/full/srep01319.html)

It's junk science, and there's a reason why it's published in Nature
Communications, Scientific Reports, or PLoS One. Every individual advancement
(brain interfaces, genetic expression control, optogenetics) must be
acknowledged as groundbreaking; this stuff, however, shouldn't excite.

University PR departments do love it, though. Makes for great press releases.

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vendakka
My wife took the time to explain this paper to me (since I rarely read papers
related to biology) and it sounds extremely interesting. She was very excited,
since tech like this could potentially be used to react to epileptic seizures
for example. We can have new control systems added to our bodies which opens
up a lot of possibilities.

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thecopy
Can someone explain?

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vendakka
I'm just relaying my wife's explanation from a few days ago and so there could
be some things lost in translation. However, here goes. They use EEG to detect
brain patterns developed during activities such as meditation. This is used to
trigger an external electromagnetic field generator. They have mice sitting on
the field generator which have implants that can in turn be triggered
inductively by the electromagnetic field. This switches on an NIR LED inside
the mice. The light illuminates a chamber containing designer cells which are
programmed to produce a protein (this is the bit I'm not sure about) when
exposed to the NIR light. Figure 5 in the paper was very helpful for me.

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czottmann
Thanks for that explanation. Sounds exciting indeed!

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bsaul
now imagine if the cell and the controlling brain are in two different bodies
:)))

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Circumstances
Congrats to the team @ ETH!

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healthisevil
This is good news !

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mike_ivanov
Precisely Clockwork Orange.

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sebastianconcpt
yeah, kind of digital version of it.

We are, by the day, achieving a level of technology that our primitive ethics
aren't prepared to deal with.

