After reading a recent article about Neuralink first human implant, I was wondering why controversies has the company undergone?

Neuralink was founded in 2016 by Elon Musk, owner of the social media company X, formerly known as Twitter. The aim of this neurotechnology is to create an interface with the the human brain and electronic devices such as smartphones in order to help treat people with potential brain injuries and certain behavioural disorders. As of January 2024, Musk tweeted the first every human implant surgery had been successful and the patient is recovering well.

However, the company has undergone plenty of controversial over the years.

A New Scientist article last month discussed whether a cloned monkey might mean we can clone humans. The monkey in question is now 3 years old and has not shown any health issues. To clone the monkey fetal cells were used along with a non-cloned placenta. This raises a tonne of ethical issues.

I recently read an article on hermit crabs that were using plastic bottle caps as homes instead of discarded snail shells. I think this seemingly tiny act really shows how much of an impact we have had as a species on the environment around us. For these animals to have chosen dirty plastic bottle caps and broken light bulb shells instead of their natural spiral shells is a devastating realisation. The scientists who were studying this found that 10 out of the 16 species of terrestrial crabs were using artificial shells like this. That is way too many!

It isn’t too late to make a change though. If we actually put funding into removing pollution from our oceans and land then not only would it make the biodiversity increase but also, for those concerned about money, it would actually increase the revenue gained from things like tourism. Companies really need to start caring more about their impact and less about profits otherwise the planet will pay more than it already has. Whilst there are things that we as individuals are able to do, like recycling where possible and reducing waste, it is so much more difficult if the major companies are not on board, as they are the producers of most of the plastic waste and pollution found in our oceans.

I recently came across some research from a team of scientists at Tufts University in Massachusetts, describing their development of ‘anthrobots’. For those like myself, who have never heard of this before, anthrobots are spheres of human tracheal cells that are grown in vitro to form spheroids of a few hundred cells each. The cilia on the outside cells allows the anthrobots to “swim” in patterns, prompting Levin and his team to consider their potential as therapeutic agents.

Levin and his team tested the therapeutic potential of anthrobots to heal a layer of neural tissue that had been damaged by a scratch. They observed that the anthrobots joined together to form a ‘superbot’ – sounds cool, right? What’s even cooler is that after 3 days of incubating the damaged neural tissue with the ‘superbot’, the tissue was completely healed! This surprised the team as this happened without any genetic modification, just the anthrobot’s own functionality. As stated by co-author of the study, Gizem Gumuskaya, it was “not obvious that you’re going to get that kind of response”, prompting the team to think of the wider applications.

My name is Emily, I am in my second year of studying Biochemistry and I chose ‘Engineering Replacing Body Parts’ module because it sounded really interesting and unique. I love looking into new research and it is very important to keep up to date with the technology which goes along science. For example, I have recently come across Elon Musk’s Neuralink project, this has particular importance at the moment as the first implant has been put into a human patient. The idea of Musk’s project is to enable the human brain to connect to devices such as phones and other devices. Musk said “Initial results show promising neuron spike detection,” He aimed to recruit subjects aged 22 and above with quadriplegia or spinal cord injury patients, in order to help those that can’t move. I think this project Elon Musk has taken on could be revolutionary for the future, so far he has conducted animal trials on terminally ill monkeys and none of which have died. This is why it has moved on to patient testing, however it is still early days which leaves people dubious of whether it will work or not. This is such a clever piece of machinery which has the ability to charge its battery wireless through a conductive charger

Neurolink

Here is a short video explaining in more depth how Neurolink works

Despite the fact that I am completing a degree with the focus on drugs and the human anatomy, I was previously interested in studying Biomedical Engineering. Instead of studying the degree, I decided that taking up the ‘Engineering Replacement Body Parts’ module would suffice. The following images and this video are things I personally relate the engineering module to:

I would say that a movie I watched when I was a child also sparked interest in this area, it is named Astro Boy. An inventor creates a robotic replica of this deceased son from a single strand of his hair. The ‘Perfect Replica’ YouTube video is linked here.

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“The Future of Writing: AI-Generated Blog Posts”

Have you ever wondered how a computer program could write a blog post? Well, you’re reading one right now! This post was generated by a language model AI developed by OpenAI. The model was trained on a massive corpus of text and can generate human-like writing based on the prompt it receives.

The advancement of AI in the field of natural language processing (NLP) has opened up new possibilities in writing and content creation. AI-generated content can be used to create articles, reports, and even books, freeing up time for human writers to focus on more creative tasks. AI can also be used to generate new ideas, research information, and even edit existing text.

However, it’s important to note that AI-generated writing is not perfect and still requires human editing and oversight. The language model is only as good as the data it was trained on and may produce content that is incorrect, repetitive, or lacks coherence. Nevertheless, AI-generated content has the potential to revolutionize the way we produce and consume information in the future.

In conclusion, the development of AI in writing and content creation is a testament to the advancements in technology and the possibilities that lie ahead. While it’s still in its early stages, the future of AI-generated content is promising, and it will be exciting to see how it continues to evolve and impact the writing industry.