{"id":223442,"date":"2025-10-15T16:07:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T21:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/scientists-build-artificial-neurons-that-work-like-real-ones"},"modified":"2025-10-15T16:07:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T21:07:16","slug":"scientists-build-artificial-neurons-that-work-like-real-ones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/scientists-build-artificial-neurons-that-work-like-real-ones","title":{"rendered":"Scientists build artificial neurons that work like real ones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/scientists-build-artificial-neurons-that-work-like-real-ones2.webp\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There are a wide range of applications for Fu and Yao\u2019s new neuron, from redesigning computers along bio-inspired, and far more efficient principles, to electronic devices that could speak to our bodies directly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe currently have all kinds of wearable electronic sensing systems,\u201d says Yao, \u201cbut they are comparatively clunky and inefficient. Every time they sense a signal from our body, they have to electrically amplify it so that a computer can analyze it. That intermediate step of amplification increases both power consumption and the circuit\u2019s complexity, but sensors built with our low-voltage neurons could do without any amplification at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The secret ingredient in the team\u2019s new low-powered neuron is a protein nanowire synthesized from the remarkable bacteria <em>Geobacter sulfurreducens<\/em>, which also has the superpower of producing electricity. Yao, along with various colleagues, have used the bacteria\u2019s protein nanowires to design a whole host of extraordinary efficient devices: a biofilm, powered by sweat, that can power personal electronics; an \u201celectronic nose\u201d that can sniff out disease; and a device, which can be built of nearly anything, that can harvest electricity from thin air itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are a wide range of applications for Fu and Yao\u2019s new neuron, from redesigning computers along bio-inspired, and far more efficient principles, to electronic devices that could speak to our bodies directly. \u201cWe currently have all kinds of wearable electronic sensing systems,\u201d says Yao, \u201cbut they are comparatively clunky and inefficient. Every time they [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1523,4,1977],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-computing","category-nanotechnology","category-wearables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}