多年来，科幻小说一直在不断地为我们描绘各种体能超强的半机械人类生活在未来的场景。随着生物科技的迅速发展，半机械人类的时代离我们又近了一步。最新的一项生物科技突破是否证明集成技术的发展前景无限光明？

 

I am a massive science fiction geek. Ever since I was young, I've been captivated by tales of interstellar adventure, aliens, robots, and cutting-edge technology. I always loved the concept of cyborgs. That's a human-robot hybrid¹. They are ordinary humans who have been enhanced in some way by technology; more intelligence, faster speed or better resilience to disease and damage. Great ideas, but I never thought I'd see them in my lifetime. 

 

Well, I stand corrected. Integrated biology and technology is already here and people have wasted no time utilising it to re-engineer their bodies. Take, for example, Neil Harbisson, who has an antenna² protruding³ from his head that allows him to hear colour, or Moon Ribas, who has an implant⁴ that allows her to sense seismic⁵ activity. Now, neither are abilities that I particularly covet⁶, but it's a start.

 

And it doesn't end there. As technology increases so too will our ability to enhance ourselves through it. One of the latest developments is the graphene tattoo⁷. Not an actual tattoo at all, but more like a patch, the graphene tattoo could revolutionise biomedical monitoring.

 

It looks much like a transparent⁸ plaster, but with a gold coloured circuit board contained within it. This circuit is the graphene. Graphene is a form of carbon, but it's 200 times stronger than steel and conducts electricity better than gold, which is the component⁹ typically used in electronics.

 

The human body is basically an electrical machine. When in contact with the skin, the graphene in the plaster is able to read and conduct the electricity – allowing it to easily be used as a medical monitor for heart-rate and pulse, among other things. And even more, graphene tattoos¹⁰ can be used as bioelectronic controllers, as demonstrated by one engineer who attached them to his eyelids¹¹ in order to direct which way a drone flew, just by looking with his eyes!

 

I know that biotechnology is a long way from allowing humans to be able to lift a car or run half-way around the world in a single day, like I wanted to be able to do when I was a child. But, it's improving all the time and once the price of graphene falls, who knows what else we'll be able to do? I'll see you in the future!

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