By now, you've probably heard about the Duke University effort to control a robotic arm with a monkey's mind. You might have read that the science is being partially funded by Darpa, the Pentagon's research arm, through its "Brain Machine Interface" project.
But what's far less known is that, despite the splashy breakthrough, Congress is aiming to cut the money for the Brain Machine Interface program by more than half.
It's one of a number of Darpa biology projects Senate budgeteers tried to kill earlier this year. Others include the "Immune Building" effort (to make a structure invulnerable to biochem attack) and the "Continuous Assisted Performance" program (to help soldiers go without sleep).
The House partially revived these efforts. But the Brain Machine Interface project is still slated to see its $17 million budget trimmed by $10 million.
THERE'S MORE: Robots that can do martial arts moves were shown off this week at a Tokyo technology fair.
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