cella a combustibile funzionante a liquido cerebrospinale (THE MATRIX IS HERE)

For centuries, humans have used the power of their brains to solve
complex mysteries, create radical new inventions, and devise wondrous
works of art. But
now, scientists have developed a technology that enables us to use
our brains to actually harvest electrical power.



Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have designed an

implantable glucose fuel cell that can generate electricity from the cerebrospinal fluid around the brain. The results of these efforts, published this week in PLoS ONE, show that a few hundred microwatts of power could be harvested from glucose
within the cerebrospinal fluid with no adverse physiological effects.



A few hundred microwatts is certainly not enough energy to power, say, a pair of Google glasses, or, for
fans of The Matrix, an entire alternate reality. But it is enough to fuel futuristic, highly efficient brain implants that could allow paralyzed
patients to regain the ability to move their arms and legs.



"We envision [the fuel cells] powering brain-machine interfaces for
paralysis in the medium-term, or in the longer-term, those for blindness
or deep-brain
disorders," says team leader and computer scientist Rahul
Sarpeshkar.

Currently, most experimental brain-machine interface devices are
powered through inductive power transfer, in which power is transferred
wirelessly, or
single-use batteries that must be surgically replaced after several
years. The new, micrometer-scale fuel cell is primarily composed of
platinum, a
material with a good track record of being safe in the body.
Sarpeshkar posits that the new fuel cell could work for decades without
being replaced, though
he emphasizes that animal and human tests will be necessary to prove
his contention.


The miniature fuel cell, shaped very similarly to a computer chip,
was tested in a saline solution simulating cerebrospinal fluid, at sizes
of 1 square
millimeter and 2 square millimeters. It functions by oxidizing
glucose from the brain's cerebrospinal fluid at the surface of an
activated platinum anode
and converting oxygen to water at the surface of a network of
single-walled carbon nanotubes embedded at the cathode end of the cell.
Electrons are stripped
from the glucose, and the fuel cell uses them to generate
electricity.


To the best knowledge of the researchers, this was the first time
that cerebrospinal fluid was used as a medium for an implantable fuel
cell. They viewed
it as a promising niche environment because it is under minimal
immune system surveillance, the fluid is practically devoid of cells,
and glucose levels
are comparable to that of blood. The fuel cell also utilized an
oxygen gradient to prevent oxygen from reaching the anode and thus
possibly creating
electrochemical short circuits.



To gauge the fuel cell's safety, the researchers first evaluated
whether brain glucose levels would be adversely affected. Using data
from their earlier
testing and available knowledge about the replenishment rate of
glucose in the cerebrospinal fluid, they determined that their fuel cell
would consume
glucose at only 2.8% to 28% of the rate at which cerebrospinal fluid
glucose is replenished, not nearly enough to cause adverse effects. The
researcher s also analyzed the fuel cell's oxygen consumption to ensure that it wouldn't destabilize brain oxygen levels. The calculations
revealed that it would not disrupt oxygen equilibrium within the cerebrospinal fluid.



Adam Heller, a chemical engineer at the University of Texas, Austin,
says the device looks promising but that it still needs to be tested in
an animal
model. Sarpeshkar's team is currently planning for animal and human
testing in the coming years and already has several candidate regions of
the brain and
spinal cord targeted for possible implantation.

Rasputin ha scritto:http://nonciclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Motore_a_gatto_imburrato