"The world's first brain-to-brain connection has given rats the power to communicate by thought alone." -- That's the lead in a story in Britain's NEW SCIENTIST. Link to that NEW SCIENTIST article "First mind-reading implant gives rats telepathic power."
Mind you, that's the respected NEW SCIENTIST, not a supermarket tabloid.
For another take, see the LONDON TELEGRAPH story "Scientists create 'telepathic' connection."
Both have videos showing what's been done at Duke University. Very basically, electrodes were implanted in the brains of two rats, one the "encoder," the other the "decoder." The encoder rat sent signals via the electodes, which were picked up and acted upon by the decoder rat.
What's the point, the potential long-term outcome of this kind of research? For one thing, it relates to other work being done to enable amputees to move artificial limbs. Beyond that are intelligence and military uses-- imagine a poisoned rat or bug, controlled by the mind of a human, being used as an assassin.
Beyond that, it is an interesting bit of research to call upon next time someone says "telepathy is bunk!" And this may be just the start. Who knows what's next?
One of the posts sent in following the TELEGRAPH article referenced this in the context of the work of Rupert Sheldrake and his concept of "morphogenic fields." Interesting linkage, and we'll explore Rupert Sheldrake and his work another time here.
And what does this have to do with my technothriller A REMEDY FOR DEATH? Nothing. But in my next techothriller, who knows what may appear!