Semi-living artist melds robot and rat

Keefe, Bob. "'Semi-living artist' melds robot and rat." Cox News Service. Immediate initial source: The Dayton Daily News, 12 July 2003: A2, "Daily Focus" section. More basic source: "Researchers use lab cultures to create robotic 'semi-living artist'" media release by Larry Bowie of Georgia Institute of Technological Research News, on-line after 8 July 03 at [1].

Bowie's lead: "Working from their university labs in two different corners of the world, U.S. and Australian researchers have created what they call a new class of creative beings, 'the semi-living artist,' a picture-drawing robot in Perth, Australia whose movements are controlled by the brain signals of cultured rat cells in Atlanta." The excised brain-cells and the robot arm are connected via the Internet to form a hybrid robot, or "Hybrot." One practical goal is to produce "neuroprothetics"; Bowie's media release cites a goal in more basic science: "Central to the experiments is [Georgia Tech's Steve] Potter's belief that over time the teams will be able to establish a cultured in vitro network system that learns like the living brains in people and animals do." The petri dish containing the cells is decorated with a picture of the Robby-like robot from the 1960s TV show Lost in Space (Keefe). The semi-living artist was displayed at "ArtBots: The Robot Talent Show" (http://artbots.org) in New York City, 12-13 July at the Eyebeam Gallery in the Chelsea district (see under Graphics). Cf. and contrast excised (human) brains in R. P. Bird's "The Soft Heart of the Electron," R. Cook's Brain, G. Dent's Emperor of If, C. S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength (listed under Fiction); see in Wikipedia and/or Clute and Nichols's The Science Fiction Encyclopedia the entry for the film DONOVAN'S BRAIN.[2]

RDE, Title, 28Aug19