Amazing stuff!
"Theoretical physicists ... have succeeded in building an artificial synapse. This synapse works with water and salt and provides the first evidence that a system using the same medium as our brains can process complex information. ..."
From the significance and abstract:
"Significance
The brain’s computing principles (neurons connected by synapses) and information carriers (ions in water) both differ fundamentally from those of conventional computers. Building on this distinction, we present an aqueous memristor that emulates the brain’s short-term synaptic plasticity features through ion transport in water, mirroring the natural processes in the brain. This device, which is inspired by and understood through a theoretical model, is applied as a synaptic element for reservoir computing, a brain-inspired machine learning framework. Thus we implement a brain-inspired computing element in a brain-inspired fluidic medium, representing a considerable step toward computing devices that proverbially both walk and talk like the brain.
Abstract
The brain’s remarkable and efficient information processing capability is driving research into brain-inspired (neuromorphic) computing paradigms. Artificial aqueous ion channels are emerging as an exciting platform for neuromorphic computing, representing a departure from conventional solid-state devices by directly mimicking the brain’s fluidic ion transport. Supported by a quantitative theoretical model, we present easy-to-fabricate tapered microchannels that embed a conducting network of fluidic nanochannels between a colloidal structure. Due to transient salt concentration polarization, our devices are volatile memristors (memory resistors) that are remarkably stable. The voltage-driven net salt flux and accumulation, that underpin the concentration polarization, surprisingly combine into a diffusionlike quadratic dependence of the memory retention time on the channel length, allowing channel design for a specific timescale. We implement our device as a synaptic element for neuromorphic reservoir computing. Individual channels distinguish various time series, that together represent (handwritten) numbers, for subsequent in silico classification with a simple readout function. Our results represent a significant step toward realizing the promise of fluidic ion channels as a platform to emulate the rich aqueous dynamics of the brain."
Fig. 1 Features and properties of our iontronic memristor through theory and experiment.
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