Researchers Build Water Soluble Chips 52
angry tapir writes "Researchers in the U.S. have developed integrated circuits that can stick to the skin like a child's tattoo and in some cases dissolve in water when they're no longer needed. The 'bio chips' can be worn comfortably on the body to help diagnose and treat illnesses. The circuits are so thin that when they're peeled away from the body they hang like a sliver of dead skin, with a tangle of fine wires visible under a microscope. Similar circuits could one day be wrapped around the heart like 'an electronic pericardium' to correct irregularities such as arrhythmia."
Do They Turn Black (Score:2)
After your 30th birthday?
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Lastday, Capricorn 29's. Year of the City: 2274. Carousel begins.
Be strong and you will be renewed. Identify.
I'm all for it. (Score:5, Funny)
"Similar circuits could one day be wrapped around the heart..."
As long as they make it look like bacon...
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Do they actually do anything yet? (Score:5, Insightful)
To show the technology, Rogers rolled up his sleeve during his talk and, using a microscope and an overhead projector, revealed a circuit stuck on his arm. It looked like a clear tattoo, with a spaghetti-like mass of wires embedded in the surface.
Right, nice, but is it a circuit that actually does something?
Re:Do they actually do anything yet? (Score:4, Funny)
Right, nice, but is it a circuit that actually does something?
Yes, it communicates with the game console that is used to control his movements.
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So you're saying game consoles are looking to take over the human market? :O
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So you're saying game consoles are looking to take over the human market? :O
What makes you think that hasn't already happened?
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Sure it does! (Score:2)
It broadcasts the message: "Drink More Ovaltine!".
Ah, another weapon (Score:1)
Like stabbing somebody with an icicle.
The tin foil hatters will have a field day with this.
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Re:Soluble, eh? (Score:4, Informative)
Well, it's a good thing the human body doesn't consist primarily of water
Most of it is contained by cell membranes. Also, water's not the only solvent. And from the summary:
in some cases dissolve in water
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First word of my post: Most
Please wait five minutes and troll again.
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Quote from the summary:
in some cases dissolve in water
Which I also included in my original post.
Please wait five minutes and troll again.
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I've never heard of a sweaty heart -- unless that's the name of a band.
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Most of it is contained by cell membranes. Also, water's not the only solvent. And from the summary:
I was making fun of the tragically amusing misleading headline less than the merely inaccurate summary.
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Capitalization is a very basic concept that is learned in elementary school. You clearly have a basic understanding of the English language, and were offended by the comment that you replied to.
The third sentence in your comment is a fragment, and the word capitalize is misspelled. The fourth sentence in your comment is a fragment, and should be broken into two sentences.
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The third sentence in your comment is a fragment, and the word capitalize is misspelled.
The 'S' in the outermost level indicates a complete sentence. Try it yourself here [cmu.edu] and get better formatting (doesn't get past slashdot's damned lameness filters with the whitespace required...).
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Once you've developed a soluble circuit, the rate at which it dissolves is no doubt a parameter that can be tweaked to yield the desired lifetime.
The fact that the circuit dissovles away is a *feature*, as in soluble sutures. We can already implant electronic circuits in the human body, but I believe the idea is to create circuits you don't need to remove with a second round of surgery.
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I see a dissolving circuit very problematic, you have to shut it down in a way that no interference with the heart is performed during dissolution. Stem cell therapy seems easier :)
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Similar circuits could one day be wrapped around the heart like 'an electronic pericardium' to correct irregularities such as arrhythmia."
Soluble... That word, I do not think it means what you think it means. Well, it's a good thing the human body doesn't consist primarily of water.
soluble
/sälybl/
Adjective
(of a substance) Able to be dissolved, esp. in water: "the poison is soluble in alcohol".
"Researchers in the U.S. have developed integrated circuits that can stick to the skin like a child's tattoo and in some cases dissolve in water when they're no longer needed.
Seems like it's used properly to me.
Pacemakers are less intrusive indeed (Score:5, Insightful)
"Similar circuits could one day be wrapped around the heart like 'an electronic pericardium' to correct irregularities such as arrhythmia."
Ok, once in place, I agree this is less intrusive than nowaday's pacemakers. And potentially more precise than their single electrode pair.
But if in order to get there you have to actually reach the heart to wrap them around, this, is catastrophically intrusive. This alone would be a no-go compared to the current pacemaker installation (through veins, basically a benign operation)
Like in many articles today, the idea and design are great, but authors feel compelled to add in the end a dreamy and ridiculous future application that basically spoils the paper.
I still think the affair is good. But now I also think the author is not really serious.
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Re:Pacemakers are less intrusive indeed (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not a cardiologist, but I do wonder if there might be any significent number of hearts too badly damaged for a conventional pacemaker, but for which this implant-wrap could do the job. Intrusive it may be, but if the alternative is a heart transplant, the wrap wins.
Re:Pacemakers are less intrusive indeed (Score:4, Interesting)
Under normal circumstances, an electrical impulse is generated in the SA node at the top of the heart, then spreads through a defined path, first inervating the atria, a quick stop in the AV node which slows the conduction down for half a beat (haha, I'm so funny.), then continues down to activate the ventricles.
Heart attacks kill muscle, and one of the big effects of that, aside from the loss of contractile force, is the fact that dead muscle doesn't conduct very well, so the electical impulse will start doing all sorts of interesting things to route around the problem, which can lead to the ventricles and atria firing in odd sequences.
This circuit could potentially provide a new route for the impulse which would more closely mimic the original path, and restore a normal(ish) rhythm.
Extending further out into speculation land, it's possible that with very precise control, and a reasonably powerful computer running the thing, you could correct atrial fibrillation, which would be all sorts of good.
Finally, as to the implantation, I know that people are starting to do endoscopic Coronary Artery Bypass Grafts, which means that it's possible to work inside the pericardial sac without cracking the chest, I see no real reason that applying this circuitry couldn't be performed in the same way. Yes it's still going to knock people down for longer than a pacemaker implant will, but then, it's doing way more than a pacemaker does.
Sprinkling surveillance (Score:1)
I wonder when it becomes feasible to have surveillance (mic and or camera) so small it can be sprinkled, and when you don't need it anymore it simply dissolves.
It always sells as a health benefiting technology (Score:3)
While in fact espionage is what pays for it :).
We can only hope health care improvements will be at least a side-effect.
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That occurred to me as well.
Perhaps people will get their governments under control, so that the People decide what gets researched... and the government must settle for the scraps.
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Two words - better education.
If People are not educated, decisions are made by mainstream media propaganda.
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I'm not sure it's prudent to wait on the primary beneficiary of a poor educational system to overhaul that system.
A good education can be had by researching online, but the value of this is regularly naysaid by internet trolls. Counterintuitively, the public seem to put much stock in their opinion of it. The result is that "everyone knows" information cannot be trusted, simply because it can be found predominantly online.
What a showman (Score:2)
As a veteran of boring science conferences, I love that to make his point "he produced and then ate a tiny RF oscillator 5 millimeters across."
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Still no Warrick though.
agreed (Score:1)
Where's the Christian conspiracy theorists? (Score:1)
Talking tattoos! (Score:2)
It seems to me that this is just a few more minor discoveries away from Amy's talking tattoo [theinfosphere.org]. I mean, the medical applications may be important and all, but come on; I'm sure everyone here knows that practicality isn't really what drives innovation...
What's this about water soluble ships? (Score:3)
Luddites abound! (Score:1)
It ain't oppression until it's oppression. As of this moment, it's a cool toy.