We are not here to advocate for the arms industry or its CEOs, writes STEVE HANDFORD, and that means we must take a stand against the government’s spending on war
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Neurons play Pong: the edge of ‘sentience’
By integrating networks of human and mouse neurons with computer hardware, a team of scientists believe that they have witnessed a 'sentient' game of the arcade classic Pong, report ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and JOEL HELLEWELL
Neurons play Pong
As Labour mimics Tory welfare cuts while ignoring crumbling schools, educators must collectively resist the government's priorities and fight for an inclusive, creative system that values all children, writes NEU president SARAH KILPATRICK
Although our sector is hearing better things from the current government, the recognition that what we do is education in its own right, rather than just childcare, is still not reflected in policy, writes LUCY COLEMAN
Once able to defy a US president before Congress, Netanyahu now finds himself weakened by military setbacks and facing a populist Trump who may yet put ‘America first’ instead of Israel, writes RAMZY BAROUD
RON BROWN makes the case for the Morning Star as the daily paper of all trade unionists, and especially education workers who have seen it cover their issues and their actions, day in, day out
Without due process, hundreds of Venezuelans living in the US have been arrested, slandered as terroristic criminals and sent flown in chains to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison under an obscure 18th-century law, reports JOHN PERRY
The NEU’s annual conference promises heated debate, with motions on international politics, curriculum reform and union amalgamation likely to provoke strong reactions and challenge the status quo, writes Education for Tomorrow editor ROBERT POOLE
TO perform the experiment, cortical cells taken from the brains of rodent embryos were placed in a vat of nutrients in which they grew into a dense, complicated network. This network resembles a very scaled-down version of the network of neurons that comprise our own brains.
Performing the same process with human neurons requires an extra step, since there are further ethical considerations for direct collection and use of human tissues.
Consensually collected human cells such as red blood cells can be “reversed” into pluripotent stem cells, the initial form that all human cells take before they begin to specialise into things like skin, muscle, or bone. These stem cells are then triggered into changing into human neurons and are grown into dense networks the same way as the mice neurons.
The neurons were grown on very fine grids of electrodes that can record the chains of electrical signals that fire along connected neurons, as well as send external electrical signals into the network. The result is a two-way interface between the network of neurons and a computer system.
The computer system was programmed to run a one-player version of the game Pong, where you move a paddle up or down to bounce a ball against a wall on the opposite side of the screen. The computer sends signals into a specific region of the neuron network and interprets any signals in two different regions as requests to move the paddle up or down.
The computer communicates sensory information such as ball location on the y-axis or ball speed into the network. The hope was that the network of neurons would learn to interpret this information and respond by moving the paddle in the correct direction.
However, the neurons need a reason to care about this sensory information that they are receiving: without any feedback on their performance could the neurons learn? This is where the scientists made use of a specific theory of how intelligent behaviour emerges, pioneered by senior author on the paper Karl Friston.
Friston is a theoretical neuroscientist based at University College London and is a leading proponent of what he has called the “free energy principle.”
More from this author
A small Japanese trial has reported some positive results for stem cell therapy to treat spinal-cord injuries
Man-made canals like Panama and Suez face unprecedented challenges from extreme weather patterns and geopolitical tensions that reveal the fragility of our global trade networks, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
It’s sunny times for the solar industry which is expected to continue to grow rapidly — but there are still major environmental issues with how solar cells are made, explain ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Fraud in Alzheimer’s research raises difficult questions about the current state of science, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT