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Spatiotemporal Cellular HErding with Electrochemical Potentials to Dynamically Orient Galvanotaxis, or SCHEEPDOG, as they call it, allows them to herd cells in two dimensions.

“Fish that encounter electricity go through a process called galvanotaxis that immobilizes the muscles, physically stopping the fish from moving through the barrier. The process can be lethal,” says Mark Cornish, a supervisory Corps biologist.

Dr. Ellen Jorgensen and computer engineer Geva Patz demonstrated this behavioral response to electricity, known as galvanotaxis, by placing paramecia in an area bounded by four electrodes—as one of the electrodes became negatively charged, the paramecia swam in its direction, only to make a u-turn as this electrode became positive and another negative.

Even if a paremecium’s galvanotaxis is nothing but a consequence of ion channels reacting to voltage gradients, is this really that different, in terms of free will, than electrical impulses traveling throughout a brain?

PAC-mecium takes advantage of a sensory phenomenon called galvanotaxis, which causes paramecia to respond to external electrical fields by moving in the direction of a cathode.