¡Que vienen los cyborgs!

Los amantes de la ciencia-ficción estamos de enhoramala. El primer (e inevitable) paso hacia los cyborgs se ha dado ya en un experimento en la Universidad de Southampton (con la colaboración de la Universidad de Kobe, en Japón) y lo ha llevado a cabo un tal Klaus-Peter Zauner. La historia la cuenta hoy Alok Jha en The Guardian. Al parecer el bueno de Zauner ha conseguido desarrollar un robot controlado por células vivas. Las células, de momento, y según hemos entendido, son de algún tipo de moho (slime mould) que reacciona ante la luz.

Nos quedamos con los párrafos más significativos del artículo:

Dr Zauner grew a star-shaped sample of the slime mould and attached it to a six-legged robot (with each point of the star attached to a leg) to control its movements.

Shining white light on to a section of the single cell organism made it vibrate, changing its thickness. These vibrations were fed into a computer, which then sent signals to move the leg in question. Pointing beams of light at different parts of the slime mould means that different legs move. Do it in an ordered way and the robot will walk.

Biological cells have been integrated into electronic circuits before but only for use in sensors. Dr Zauner's work is the first time that cells have been used to control movement in robots. "What is very attractive to us is the fact that cells can self-repair and self-restructure, all the things that you can't achieve with conventional technology," he said.

A primera vista parece una tontería, pero a nosotros nos da escalofríos.