From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Fri Dec 07 2001 - 18:41:30 MST
WOW!
http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20011204S0068
(Spotted by Brian Atkins.)
> AUSTIN, Texas — By using the molecular-recognition
> capabilities of living cells, scientists have made
> selective electrical contacts to neurons. The cadmium
> sulfide contacts act as photodetectors, allowing
> researchers to communicate with the cells using precise
> wavelengths of light.
>
> By selectively coding peptides that coated quantum
> dots, University of Texas scientists precisely controlled
> the spacing of hundreds of quantum dots on the
> surface of the living neurons.
>
> "We are taking small particles of semiconductor
> materials, our quantum dots," said Christine Schmidt, an
> assistant professor of biomedical engineering. "These
> are cadmium sulfide-based materials. We can take
> peptide molecules that have very specific protein
> sequences and put them into the actual semiconductor
> material, which then very specifically binds to particular
> locations on cell surfaces."
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://intelligence.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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