I don't see many comments on the really interesting point of this story, a fourth non-invasive technology to view the insides of the human body. X-ray, ultrasound and MRI are commonly used for this purpose. It's exciting to speculate on other clinical applications for this new tech.
While the most exciting applications of technology such as this is in things like artificial hearts http://nypheart.org/treatment/surgery/lvad.html the small voltage is a big problem. I also wonder what kind of limits glucose availability will impose. Devices such as this would probably be placed subcutaneously where blood perfusion isn't all that great. In addition the body surrounds foreign bodies with scar tissue which is an additional barrier. It's not a given that simple diffusion won't impose limits on the power that can be generated.
I'd think that the more mundane uses of this and comparable technology for low-power devices such as glucose moniters and perhaps extending the battery life in common devices such as implanted defibrillators and pacemakers will be by far the most important applications in the immediate future.
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I don't see many comments on the really interesting point of this story, a fourth non-invasive technology to view the insides of the human body. X-ray, ultrasound and MRI are commonly used for this purpose. It's exciting to speculate on other clinical applications for this new tech.
I also wonder what kind of limits glucose availability will impose. Devices such as this would probably be placed subcutaneously where blood perfusion isn't all that great. In addition the body surrounds foreign bodies with scar tissue which is an additional barrier. It's not a given that simple diffusion won't impose limits on the power that can be generated.
I'd think that the more mundane uses of this and comparable technology for low-power devices such as glucose moniters and perhaps extending the battery life in common devices such as implanted defibrillators and pacemakers will be by far the most important applications in the immediate future.