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遥控捕蝇草 俗话说“蜂蜜能比醋捕到更多苍蝇”（译者注：原文为“You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. ”意指温柔有礼比尖酸刻薄更易奏效）。但如果你有一株可以遥控的捕蝇植物呢？研究人员设计了一个仿生系统，或者说一个人工神经元，可以用来触发捕蝇草的闭合。 瑞典林雪平大学（Linköping University）的副教授西蒙娜·法比亚诺（Simone Fabiano）以神经细胞为生物蓝图设计了一个陷阱弹簧装置：“生物神经元的工作方式是，随着时间的推移它们会整合不同的输入信息，执行计算，并通过电压脉冲将结果传达给其他神经元。” 现在，标准的硅基系统也可以传递电脉冲。但如果你想将它们与活的生物结合起来，生产仿生假肢或设计任何类型的大脑/机器接口，它们还是存在一些限制，“比如刚性太高、生物相容性较差、电路结构复杂，运行机制与生物系统也有着根本上的不同。” 为了使生物整合顺利进行，法比亚诺用聚合物构建了他的系统，这些聚合物既可以传导电子（就像日常的电子设备那样），也可以传导离子，也就是……[查看全文] A Remote-Controlled Carnivorous Plant? Karen Hopkin: This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. They say you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. But what if you had access to a remote-controlled carnivorous plant? Because researchers have engineered a bio-inspired system…an artificial neuron, if you will…that can trigger the snap of a Venus flytrap. Simone Fabiano: Hi, my name is Simone Fabiano. I'm associate professor at Linköping University in Sweden. Hopkin: Fabiano designed the trap-springing device using nerve cells as a kind of bio-based blueprint. Fabiano: The way our biological neurons work is that they integrate information from different inputs over time, perform computation, and communicate the result to other neurons by means of voltage pulses. Hopkin: Now, standard, silicon-based systems can also deliver electrical pulses. But if you want to couple them with something living…to produce bionic prosthetics or engineer any kind of brain/machine interface…well, they suffer from several limitations… Fabiano: …such as rigidity, poor biocompatibility, complex circuit structures, and operation mechanisms that are fundamentally different from those of biological systems. Hopkin: To smooth biological integration, Fabiano built his system from polymers that conduct both electrons…like, everyday electronics…and ions, which is...[full transcript] “ Harikesh, P.C., Yang, CY., Tu, D. et al. Organic electrochemical neurons and synapses with ion mediated spiking. Nat Commun 13, 901 (2022). 封面图来源：Unsplash |
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