Electrical behaviour and evolutionary computation in thin films of bovine brain microtubules

Vissol-Gaudin, Eléonore; Pearson, Chris; Groves, Chris; Zeze, Dagou A.; Cantiello, Horacio F.; Cantero, María del Rocio; Petty, Michael C.

Abstract

We report on the electrical behaviour of thin films of bovine brain microtubules (MTs). For samples in both their dried and hydrated states, the measured currents reveal a power law dependence on the applied DC voltage. We attribute this to the injection of space-charge from the metallic electrode(s). The MTs are thought to form a complex electrical network, which can be manipulated with an applied voltage. This feature has been exploited to undertake some experiments on the use of the MT mesh as a medium for computation. We show that it is possible to evolve MT films into binary classifiers following an evolution in materio approach. The accuracy of the system is, on average, similar to that of early carbon nanotube classifiers developed using the same methodology.

Citation

Vissol-Gaudin, E., Pearson, C., Groves, C., Zeze, D. A., Cantiello, H. F., Cantero, M. D. R., & Petty, M. C. (2021). Electrical behaviour and evolutionary computation in thin films of bovine brain microtubules. Scientific Reports, 11, Article 10776. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-90260-0

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 12, 2021
• Online Publication Date: May 24, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021
• Deposit Date: May 25, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: May 25, 2021
• Journal: Scientific Reports
• Electronic ISSN: 2045-2322
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Article Number: 10776
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-90260-0
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1247741