From mind to machine

The human brain is a powerful natural computer that has evolved over tens of thousands of years.

But what would you get if you combined this biological computer with a real one?

Researchers at Indiana University Bloomington in the US have linked human brain-like tissues to an electronic chip, which can perform simple computer tasks.

Their creation, named Brainoware, is part of a growing field called biological computing that might one day outperform current computers, according to Nature.

The brain-like tissues the researchers used, also known as brain organoids, weren't part of a living person's brain.

They were "grown" from human stem cells, which are capable of producing different types of cells and forming body tissues.

It took two months for the stem cells to mature into an organoid.

The researchers then placed one organoid onto an electronic chip with thousands of electrodes.

Although organoids are much simpler and smaller than an actual brain, they act similarly to human brains, such as responding to electrical signals, which is what our brain does all the time.