ARTIFICIAL eyes which could help blind people to see may be possible in the future as a result of ground-breaking research carried out by scientists at Daresbury Laboratory.

Dr Mark Tobin, who manages the laboratory's SYCLOPS microscope - the only one of its kind in the world - worked with university scientists to make live nerve cells grow on specially made silicon.

The work could also mean that in the future silicon chips in the brain could improve sight, hearing and memory. It could also help in the rebuilding of damaged nerves.

The next stage of the research will be to bond human nerves to silicon.

Said Dr Tobin: "The nerves live on silicon now, but we don't know if they can make electrical contact with silicon chip material."

Said Daresbury's public relations officer, Tony Buckley: "Once you can wire nerves to silicon it opens up possibilities for new things such as artificial eyes which could help the blind.

"It might also be possible to build a chip to be wired into the brain to improve voice recognition and image recognition. It could also improve memory."

He said that the research achieved so far was a key discovery which would open up a whole lot of work.

It is hoped that binding nerves to silicon chips will happen in three to four years, and that the more far reaching implications could start to happen in 20 years.

Dr Tobin is working on the project with Professor Sue Bayliss and Dr Lorraine Buckberry from De Montfort University, Leicester.

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