While training to become a neurosurgeon, Australian neurologist Tom Oxley learned that stents can be inserted into blood vessels deep in the brain and suspected that electrodes could be delivered in the same way, putting them close to the brain tissue just outside. The electrodes could potentially read the activity of the nerve cells deep in the brain without requiring invasive surgery. Human trials on Oxley’s “stentrode” are set to begin in 2017, with the hope that paralyzed volunteers could use stentrodes to control their wheelchairs or even exoskeletons, essentially building a bionic spine.

Read “Building a Bionic Spine,” a feature story in Ars Techica…