Liu Jie, Wang Tao, Zhang Liping: A brief analysis of the development of cross-cutting technology for military biology in the world
Source: Military Digest, No. 10, 2021
WeChat platform editor: Zhou Yue
At present, the development speed of the world's military biological cross-cutting technology has accelerated significantly. The National Academy of Sciences, Academy of Engineering and School of Medicine released the "Protecting the Bioeconomy" report, which looks forward to the development trend of biological cross-economy and related risks. The RAND Corporation of the United States released the "Brain-Computer Interface: A Preliminary Assessment of Military Applications and Impacts" report, which explores the current and future operational value of brain-computer interface technology, related weaknesses and risks, and policy specifications that should be formulated before the technology is deployed. The European Commission publishes the report "Cross-development of cross-technical approaches in the life sciences", which aims to guide and promote cross-technical developments in biological sciences. Russia and many countries in the Asia-Pacific region attach importance to the development of military biological cross-cutting technology.
Countries actively explore new concepts and new technologies for biological computing
Biological computing is the basic enabling technology for promoting cross-cutting technology innovation in military biology. Through the storage, management, acquisition and computing technology support of large-scale and multi-type data and information, biocomputing technology provides necessary and efficient data support for cross-technological innovation of military biological technology. Military powers led by the United States and Russia are promoting research on biochips and biosystems through multiple projects.
In June 2020, Lobachevsky State University in Russia, in collaboration with scientists from many countries, proposed the concept of a "memory-obstructive neural hybrid chip" that can be used in compact biosensors and neuroprostheses. The concept is a forward-looking solution based on a combination of nerve cells and microfluidic technologies that enable the implantation of "spatially ordered active neural networks".
In August 2020, the State University of New York at Stony Brook cooperated with the University of Texas at Austin and other universities to realize a high-capacity biological storage technology based on silk protein. This storage technology uses natural silk proteins with good biocompatibility, easy functionality and controllable degradation rate as the information storage medium, and near-field infrared nanolithography technology as the digital information writing method.
Practical application of biosensing technology
The degree is constantly increasing
Biological sensing is the use of biological material sensitive sensors to convert the concentration of substances into electrical signals for detection technology, mainly to achieve the three functions of feeling, observation, reaction, widely used in medicine, biochip, environmental detection, military monitoring and other fields. The United States and other military science and technology powers are focusing on promoting biosensing technology towards practicality.
In June 2020, researchers at Tufts University in the United States performed localized detection of biomolecules in real time by printing bioactive, high-precision biosensing structures on wearable substrates. When the surrounding environment changes or releases a specific molecule, a biologically active sensing material can react with it, resulting in a color change.
In September 2020, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Defense (DARPA) Persistent Aquatic Biosensor (PALS) program entered its second phase, which is expected to continue through November 2021. The project, unveiled in February 2018, aims to develop new sensor systems for detecting, recording and interpreting the behavior of marine life such as large groupers to identify, characterize and report on manned/unmanned submersibles operating in strategic waters. This technology will enhance the capabilities of existing hardware-based maritime surveillance systems in the United States, greatly expanding the scope, sensitivity, and longevity of the U.S. military's underwater surveillance capabilities.
In June 2021, DARPA added a bionic coastal protection program to its fiscal year 2022 application budget, which builds on the technology accumulated by the persistent aquatic biosensor project to develop man-made and bio-hybrid, sustainable coral reef structures that protect U.S. bases in low-lying coastal areas.
The popularity of brain-computer interface technology has soared, and cutting-edge breakthroughs continue to emerge
Brain-computer interface refers to the technology that creates a direct connection between the human or animal brain and an external device, enabling the brain to interact with the device information. Because of its subversive military use and pioneering medical use, brain-computer interface has received great attention from the world's major military powers and innovative enterprises in recent years, and has achieved a series of breakthrough results.
In March 2020, researchers at Stanford University in the United States developed a new device that can connect the brain directly to a silicon chip. The device inserts a bundle of tiny wires thinner than a human hair into the brain and connects the wires directly to an external silicon chip that records the EEG signals transmitted through each wire. The device can record more data and is less invasive than existing devices. The researchers tested on retinal cells in rats and got meaningful signals.
In May 2020, the research team of Baylor Medical College in the United States published a research result in the international top journal "Cell", which uses dynamic current to stimulate the cerebral cortex through brain-computer interface technology, transmit visual information directly to the brain, and help blind patients bypass damaged eyes and nerves and restore vision.
In October 2020, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory announced that it will work with Microsoft Research, MIT Lincoln Labs and other industry partners to develop a "personalized neural learning system" to create an interface between the human brain and a computer, and determine the learning status of the human brain by extracting brain signals and other physiological data in real time to improve pilots' ability to learn and make quick and effective decisions.
In April 2021, researchers at Brown University in the United States demonstrated the first use of high-bandwidth wireless brain-computer interfaces in humans. The system can transmit brain signals at single-neuron resolution and full-broadband fidelity without physical binding to the decoding system. This is an important step towards a fully implantable intracortical brain-computer interface system.
In April 2021, Elon Musk founded Neural Connections, a company that showed a monkey playing a video game through the brain-computer interface system LINK V0.9. The system has the advantages of small size, small rejection reaction, large number of signal acquisition channels, wireless communication and charging, and high practicality, which lays a foundation for accelerating the research and development of practical "brain control" systems. The device, which is expected to be used to address many neurological problems such as memory loss, stroke and addiction, is currently licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is expected to conduct human trials in the near future. Prior to this, Neural Connect had implanted an invasive brain-computer interface system into pigs' brains in August 2020 and obtained clear EEG signals.
In May 2021, researchers at Stanford University developed a new brain-computer interface that can convert imaginary "handwriting" in the human brain into screen text with an accuracy rate of more than 99%. The device can accurately convert 90 characters per minute, and the speed can be comparable to normal handwriting or typing on a smartphone, more than twice as fast as typing with the eye tracking system before.
Analysis of the development characteristics of military biological cross-cutting technology
At present, the four major scientific problems recognized by the world include the origin of life, the nature of consciousness, the structure of matter and the evolution of the universe, and the cross-cutting technology of military biology is closely related to the former two, which is the strategic commanding heights that the world's military powers have made efforts to seize. In the future, military biological crossover technology will refer to the operation mode of biological organisms to achieve meaningful analysis of higher neural functions such as the semi-synthesis of life, the efficient utilization of life composition, and cognitive memory thinking. Synthetic organisms with national defense application values such as strategic monitoring and autonomous controllability will become hot spots at the laboratory research level, and technologies such as brain reading, brain imitation, brain control, and brain control will be applied in specific scenarios.
As an important source of military subversive technological breakthroughs, military biological cross-cutting technology is developing in the direction of great integration, great intersection and great breakthrough, especially after combining with machine learning, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, micro-nano manufacturing, cognitive neuroscience and other methods and tools, military biological cross-cutting technology has entered a period of development and strategic opportunities, and will produce huge application value in the military field. At present, it has become a key technology for national defense invested by the world's military powers, and has continuously spawned new combat styles and operational concepts, which will have an important impact on the generation of military capabilities and the change of war forms in the future.
New concept biological weapons represented by neuroscience and brain science, biological sensing and biological computing, bionic materials and bionic machinery are rapidly emerging, which can enhance or weaken the situational awareness, decision-making evaluation and combat functions of combat subjects to adapt to the new requirements of precision warfare and soft killing under informationized warfare on military science and technology. In the future, military biological crossover technology will play a role in many fields such as target identification and friend and foe judgment of new weapons and equipment, intelligent directional weapon reconnaissance and surveillance sensors, energy supply of logistics support equipment, development of large-scale biological computers, wearable devices for future soldiers, tissue repair of living organisms and battlefield rescue.
Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Chuanliang
*Disclaimer: This article only represents the personal views of the author and does not represent the position of this official account
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