This is what Prof. Simon Litzin, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University and CTO at StoreDot said as part of an expert panel under the title 'Revolutionary Chips' held as part of the Israeli Chip Club meeting
"Innovation in the 21st century will be reflected in the interface between biology and technology." This quote, attributed to the late Steve Jobs, opened the panel of experts on the topic "Chips of a revolution: Do the chips of the future lie in the right combination of biology, chemistry and physics?" The expert panel was held on June 23, 2014 in Tel Aviv, as part of the meeting of the Israeli chip club. The moderator of the panel, Shlomo Gerdman - chairman of the Israeli chip club, was joined by Prof. Simon Litzin, lecturer at Tel Aviv University and CTO at StoreDot; Prof. Mati Mintz, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University and a researcher in the field of brain-machine interfaces, as well as Dr. Tom Ran, a researcher in the field of biological computers at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
At the beginning of the discussion, Prof. Litzin referred to the words of Steve Jobs, who claimed that innovation in the 21st century will be reflected in the interface between biology and technology. He pointed out that the StoreDot company shares the vision of Steve Jobs and strives to utilize the molecules in nature for the realization of real devices. He tells how the idea for his current research matured in his mind: "The story started when I read an article in Nature in 2010 about the research of Prof. Udi Gazit and Gil Rosenman from Tel Aviv University on the use of peptides for the production of Nanodots - small dots. Their research dealt with the process that occurs in Alzheimer's patients in which peptides attach themselves to nanotubes; Gazit and Rosman learned how to stop the process in the middle and produce small and uniform organic nanodots. At the same time, I worked simultaneously at the university and at SanDisk, and therefore tested the use of metal nanodots in flash memories. I approached Gil Rosenman and started asking questions about physical properties, and it became clear to me that science does not know how to answer all questions. Together we established a research group, which was joined by Doron Meyersdorff. From this research grew the company StoreDot, which started operating a year ago, and is now in the second round of raising money. We are concentrating on two applications: changing the color of the screens in a much more efficient and cheaper way, as well as batteries that can be charged in 30 seconds."
Prof. Mati Mintz, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University and a researcher in the field of brain-machine interfaces, spoke about the research he is conducting at the School of Neuroscience, in the field of restoring behavioral functions following a brain injury: "Many studies in neurology and psychiatry show that accidents and the aging process of the body cause damage to small areas in the brain and their dysfunction. For example, in old age, the function of small areas of the brain that are responsible for simple motor actions such as swallowing or breathing malfunctions. Scientific research tries to test a specific area of the brain, to see if it is possible to receive the information at the entrance to that area, process it outside, and return the information to the exit from that brain component.
Theodore Berger, a researcher at the University of California in Los Angeles, studied in this context the hippocampus: the area of the brain responsible for memory, spatial perception and the transfer of short-term memory to long-term. He stuck a lot of electrodes in and out of the hippocampus, and along the way activated a chip containing an algorithm that translates input into output. In an experiment he did with mice, he succeeded in restoring their memory, but he had difficulty teaching them new things but only imitating what they had done in the past. The group I built together with engineers at Tel Aviv University and in collaboration with several research groups in Europe, seeks to replace an area of the hippocampus with a copy of a brain circuit. We copied to a chip a neural circuit in the cerebellum responsible for motor learning. We connected this to both cerebellar input and output pathways. When we removed the learning area, the animal used the alternating circuit that allowed it to learn new things. The downside: we still don't know how to imitate what the cerebellum has learned in the past. We can give a person the system to relearn what he learned as a child. But as mentioned, the research is still ongoing."
Additional diseases are at the focus of biological-technological research. For example, Dr. Tom Ran, a researcher in the Weizmann Institute's biological computer project, told about the aspiration to create water droplets that would contain trillions of DNA computers, tour the human body and know how to identify cancer cells. "Researchers are currently working on interesting technological applications in the field of biology: genetic engineering of bacteria so that they can digest paper and turn into sugar, or a XNUMXD printer in which tissues can be built, with which they have already succeeded in printing artificial blood and kidneys for mice. Today you can order a box, spit into the test tube and a week later receive comprehensive information about the carriers for cancer genes, a recommended diet, a comprehensive genetic review and what your child will look like. Today there are sperm banks that offer to mark traits, and with the development of technology, in the future we will even be able to help revive varieties - from mammoths to Neanderthal man. However, alongside the advantages there is the fear that the insurance companies will misuse the technology and set high premiums for carriers of cancer genes, or the fear that any child will be able to print the Ebola virus on a XNUMXD printer and start a virus and anti-virus race in real life as well."
The moderator of the panel, Shlomo Gerdman: "Everything we have seen here is undoubtedly amazing, and there is no doubt that we must adapt to life in a changing world. Do you think we are at the threshold of one of the greatest technological revolutions?"
Prof. Mintz: "It is easy to define anything that changes as a revolution. The question is: which direction is the revolution going? I do not agree with Prof. Vadia [Prof. Elon Vadia] who said that the revolution will be in the direction of biology and electronics. Electronics has a very short window of opportunity. Biology will develop so much that electronics will be unnecessary. We saw what kind of computers they could be. It is about the possibility of restoring biology and connecting it with technology, but people like me, who work on the connection with electronics, know that we have a limited time until the biologists enter the story and then a revolution will occur."
Prof. Litzin refined Prof. Mintz's words and differentiated between two research directions: developments that combine biology and electronics and uses of standard electronics for the purpose of improving the functioning of the human body. "The latter does yield many breakthroughs, but the system is too conservative and the regulators prevent interference in human life. On the other hand, we are at the beginning of the road in the matter of using organic materials to build new processes such as in electronics. There are few companies and ideas, but I believe in the direction and within 10-20 years we will see a lot of applications and extensive use of biological materials."
Dr. Ran: "There are 3 billion letters in our DNA and a mistake in one of them is enough for a person to have cystic fibrosis. The concept of computing will be the same concept, and the meaning is that it will be inside us. This will be a revolution."
Gerdman: "Today most computers are built according to the von Neumann machine - serial processing; The brain is built in a way of parallel processing and a more efficient neural network. Do you think that in the coming years the entire world of computing will change in the direction of neural processing that is more similar to the structure of the brain?"
Dr. Ran: "There are quite a few parallel computing systems, but the brain does not necessarily work in parallel. Our experience is serial: thought after thought. In the era of biological computing, we see 3 trillion computers in one drop, that is, countless computers working at the same time. It will be possible to develop biological computers that will check each other's decision. Phenomena such as hair loss as a result of an inaccurate medication prescription could be solved by using computers that would check each other: one would check for illness and the other would check for health."
Prof. Litzin: "When talking about revolutions, you have to remember that already 20 years ago they were talking about quantum computers. They thought then that within five to ten years they would replace the regular computers. The truth is in the middle. I believe that there will be processes that can be carried out more efficiently in neural networks but I do not believe that they will replace the existing computers. In my estimation, there will be an integrated solution, but we are at a fairly early stage of it."
Prof. Mintz: "I don't know if there will be a revolution in the field of computers, but we are certainly at the beginning of a revolution in the field of the brain. How many cells can I measure at the same time? One, two, three. If I build the circuit on a chip I can now know what each component is doing at the same time. The revolution will be carried out through the connection to electronics and thus we will gain knowledge about the brain itself. By connecting to electronics we can better understand how the circuit works. Even Prof. Vadia, who works with the most electrodes, fails to produce the information from such a small circuit."
In the context of the use of bio-organic products, Prof. Licin was asked where he thinks it is possible to reach as a result of the use of these products. To this he replied that the first idea that came up in this context was the improvement of computer memory as a result of research on Alzheimer's (which is an interesting idea in itself, because it is a disease that affects memory). He believes that there are many processes in the human body that we still do not understand, and it will be possible in the future to learn from them and use this knowledge in applications. In this context, he refers to the use of nano-dots: "We discovered the use of nano-dots for screens by accident, when we tried to sell the memories and there were no buyers for them. But one of the customers, a large company in Asia, suggested that we test the optical properties of the quantum dots. The whole point is to ask the right questions."
Gerdman: "Prof. Mintz, how close are we to completing the development of biometic chips?"
Prof. Mintz: "It depends on which diseases. We probably won't be able to find a solution for Alzheimer's because it is a diffuse disease, attacking many places in the cerebral cortex. But there are neurological and also psychiatric diseases that can be placed on one small nucleus - of tens and hundreds of cells. And if there is such a disease with problems of swallowing or problems of fine motor skills, it is possible to connect a bypass, even without removing the affected area until it recovers. To develop a closed circuit where they will receive the signals reaching a small area of the brain, process the information in an external chip and return the answer to the circuit. This of course requires a lot of knowledge in anatomy and physiology. Today we are talking not only about electrical methods that have a low resolution, but also about causing stimulation in the infrared and other means. These things come in massively. In any case, if in the future we succeed in replacing small but vital areas of the brain, our grandchildren will be able to reach the age of 150."
Gerdman: "Dr. Ran, already in 2001 Prof. Ehud Shapira introduced biological computers. Today you and your friends are trying to develop systems that will inspect our body and detect diseases in early stages. How far have you progressed?”
Dr. Ran: "There are already applications, for example the medicine for malaria. Until now, the drug was expensive because the concentration of the active substance in the plants is very low, but today it is produced in huge quantities using bacteria, just as insulin is produced. This is a project that will take many more years to develop, if we invest the necessary resources."
In the context of technological and scientific developments, the issue of misuse by hostile elements often arises. The panel members were asked what their position was regarding the public's fear of the misuse of technology, for example virus replication and controlling people's minds. How do you prevent it?
Prof. Mintz: "About 15 years ago, I wanted in Europe for a chip that would replace a piece of the brain. The lecture was recorded, later presented without my knowledge at a conference dealing with ethics, and I was defamed. I asked to appear a year later at the same conference, I took people from Ireland who manufacture electrodes and a doctor who works in Grenoble who implants electrodes in Parkinson's patients, and together we showed the advantages of the technology. Of course, any technology can be misused and the question was: who is responsible? The scientists should also be responsible. Recently, studies from Japan were published that allegedly showed that molecules can be built in an amazing way. It turned out to be a scam and the academic institution, which employed hundreds of researchers, was closed. Even the science establishment itself keeps to itself not to do anything beyond what is allowed. But of course, as in any reformed society, someone has to stand on the outside. Bush did this at the time when he restricted stem cell research, and Obama reversed Bush's decision. Prof. Asa Kosher said in this context that there has not yet been a technology that anyone has been able to stop. The question is not whether to stop the development of technology, but whether to ban its negative uses."
Dr. Ran: "There is nothing to fear from organizations. For al-Qaeda, biological computers are overkill. It's easier for them to send planes to crash into buildings. I'm not afraid of researchers in academia but really worried about geniuses in all kinds of garages. If Steve Jobs could build the computer prototype in a garage, people can collect things from nature and redesign them without supervision."
Prof. Litzin: "The developers of the Qasim do not use equations. Technologies are too smart to be at the center of threats. Most of our energy will go into the fight against much simpler threats than entering our brains."
Prof. Elon Vadia asked to comment to the panel members and said at the end of the discussion: "For all the pessimists in the ability to criticize the use of the new technologies in a negative way, the important thing is not to give the politicians any power in this matter."
