Brain cell assemblies developed from human embryonic stem cells could someday be used to detect chemical weapons.
That's the brainchild -- ha, ha -- of University of Georgia animal science professor Steve Stice. The cells are kept inside a monitoring system; in the presence of chemical threats, their electrical activity becomes erratic and sets off an alarm.
Stice originally used mouse cells, but they didn't last as long as human cell cultures, which he claims can survive for six months or even longer.
I'm a little curious about how the anti-embryonic stem cell research folks will respond to this one. But I'm much more curious about the cells themselves. A couple years ago I wrote about a Georgia Institute of Technology professor who developed neural cultures that interface with the outside world, raising the possibility -- if only conceptually -- that they could someday become conscious. What if a bomb-sniffing cell culture became aware....
New use for stem cells found in war on terrorism [Press Release]
See Also:
- Could a New Explosive Explain Why We're Carbon Based?
- Chem Lab: Spray-On Test for Improvised Explosives
- It's Alive (ish)
Image: University of Wisconsin
