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Scientists Invent Electronics That Dissolve In the Body

Posted by samzenpus on from the going-going-gone dept.

An anonymous reader writes in with a story about some new electronics that are designed to melt in your body not in your hand. "Scientists have created ultra-thin electronic devices that can 'melt away' in the body once their job is done. A new study published in the journal Science, details how scientists have created a tiny, fully functional electronic device capable of vanishing within their environment, like in the body or in water, once they are no longer needed or useful. There are already implants that dispense drugs or provide electrical stimulation but they do not dissolve. The latest creation is an early step in a technology that may benefit not only medicine, like enabling the development of medical implants that don't need to be surgically removed or the risk of long-term side effects, but also electronic waste disposal."

12 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Medical applications? Nope. by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I predict the first practical use of these devices will be for surveillance.

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    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Medical applications? Nope. by JustOK · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I predict it's been done already.

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      rewriting history since 2109
    2. Re:Medical applications? Nope. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A device that delivers drugs and then melts away to leave no evidence?

      The second practical use will certainly be assassination.

    3. Re:Medical applications? Nope. by Foxhoundz · · Score: 2

      Don't mind the miserable pessimists here on Slashdot. I think the medicinal breakthroughs will have more of an impact on humanity than all of the shady applications for this innovation combined.

    4. Re:Medical applications? Nope. by artor3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh Slashdot, news for luddites, as always. Just once I'd like to see a story about a new technology in which there isn't an immediate upmodded post about how it's so scary and awful.

      Tell me, how does the dissolvability of this new tech make it ideal for surveillance? Are you one of those tin foil nutcases who thinks the US is implanting tracking devices in people? If so, why do they want those devices (which are already so well hidden that they've never been found) to dissolve? If not, how exactly are they going to surreptitiously get these scary tracking devices into people?

  2. Impossible, I say by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's hogwash! I depend on a little device in my heart to keep me alive. They would never make it just dissol^ `~ & # [NO CARRIER]

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    Table-ized A.I.
  3. Re:also electronic waste disposal by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was thinking the same thing. Even with medical implants, electronic waste disposal is a problem because of the materials used, not the fact that they need to be removed. Even a more literal reading of TFS implies that our bodies will just absorb mercury, gold, silicon, lead, and so on from these new implants. (Awkward.)

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    Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
  4. tasty by confused+one · · Score: 2

    que Homer voice:

    Mmmmmmm. Electronics.

  5. Re:also electronic waste disposal by teknx · · Score: 3, Funny

    Dude, if your not going to eat those expired chrome cookies, can I have them?

  6. I see a problem by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

    When part of the device dissolves before the rest of it, will it malfunction? Especially if its one of these devices that provide electrical stimulation.

  7. Electronics disolved by the body by rossdee · · Score: 3, Funny

    Toddlers have been doing this for decades

  8. precedent by slashmydots · · Score: 3, Funny

    There's that one guy in India or whatever that ate an entire airplane over like 30 years or something so "invent" might be a little much, lol.