Links: ZDNet.com Blog Entry / Mil-Tech Press Release / ScienceDaily Article / Physics World Article /

Reading about an organic transistor that mimics a brain synapse that was developed nanotechnology researchers in France, we were wondering if they are unknowingly working on the progenitors of the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica or the predecessors of SkyNet from the Terminator series.

(Image Credit: Mil-Tech.com)

For the first time, nanotechnology researchers in France have developed a hybrid nano-particle-organic transistor that can mimic the main functionalities of a synapse.

The NOMFET (Nanoparticle Organic Memory Field-Effect Transistor), as it's known, is an organic device made of a molecule called pentacene (an organic semiconductor) and gold nano-particles. It exhibits the main behavior of a biological spiking synapse and can lead to a new generation of neuro-inspired computers, capable of responding in a manner similar to the nervous system.

As Mil-Tech reports, Dominique Vuillaume, a research director at CNRS (the French National Science Agency) involved with the project said; "Basically, we have demonstrated that electric charges flowing through a mixture of an organic semiconductor and metallic nano-particles can behave the same way as neurotransmitters through a synaptic connection in the brain."

(Source: ZDNet.com, Mil-Tech, ScienceDaily, Physics World)